JCC to open mental health center in fall

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While the preventative mental health center will be a physical location at the JCC, Shuster said they are also looking to do work out in the community with training sessions or mental health screenings.

The center is still being developed, but Shuster said they are aiming for a soft opening in the fall and a grand opening shortly after.

Shuster said the center’s physical space is being organically designed using wood tones and greenery to assist in grounding its members.

In the meantime, Shuster said the center is developing its fall portfolio and curriculum to provide programs upon opening.

Shuster said that she and the JCC expect to bring this to the community soon. celebration of our core values of education, employment and empowerment of people with disabilities and their families,” Rosa said.

“I’m looking forward to being able to lift up the community with additional tools, skills and resources for preventative mental health in all the work that we do and in all the ways that we see that the community is touched and afected by this mental health pandemic that we’re in right now,” Shuster said.

Rosa said that while the school resumed inperson events last year, this year more people felt comfortable and emboldened to gather and interact with one another.

“That feeling of liberation and the yearning to get back with our Viscardi community was really palpable in the joyful spirit that everybody experienced during the event,” Rosa said.

Students Josie and Adryana, two students from the Henry Viscardi School, both said their favorite parts of the evening were meeting all of the athletes. The school did not share the students’ last names for privacy because they are students with disabilities, Brussell said.

Josie, a senior at the school, shared her personal story at the event and the impact the Henry Viscardi School has had on her life since attending from Kindergarten.

“I was nervous speaking in front of everyone, but so glad I did it,” Josie said. “I was excited to meet new people and hear some of their stories they shared with me and my friends.”

Adryana was one of the students who presented personal artwork to the honorees, sharing hers with Roach.

“I was excited and nervous at the same time, but overall very excited to present my artwork,” Adryana said.

Three moments stuck out to Rosa from the night: honoree Roach talking about her mentoring relationship with a young girl with a disability and how it changed her life, sharing the stage with Nystrom and when students sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from their play “The Wizard of Oz.”

Rosa said they are still fnalizing the amount raised during the fundraiser, but that the event was afrming to know that the community is still involved and enthusiastic in supporting the Henry Viscardi school.

He said the fundraiser was an “unequivocal success” as it gathered the community together who were thrilled to be there once again and support the school.

“I think the event is important because it is nice to see athletes give back and it is important they are recognized for it,” Adryana said.

“As a not-for-proft, we pour that money back into the system,” Barakat said. “Since cancer is so prevalent and important, I’ve been blessed that the health-care system is putting half a billion dollars into cancer in the next three years.”

Barakat said that Northwell is building the frst cancer center in Queens, which is opening this year, and a brand new cancer center on Staten Island, opening in the fourth quarter of 2023. Barakat noted the benefts of being treated locally, especially in Queens, which has the most ethnically diverse population in the world.

“The combination of being treated locally, being treated by people that are like you, by having a very diverse staf and faculty providing cutting edge care right in your backyard, I think that’s what makes the diference,” he said. “When you remove that stress of driving and paying for parking, I think that that does wonders for patients, and I think that’s why we’re growing and succeeding.”

During the celebration, the Tita and Joseph Monti-Vincent Vinciguerra Award in Patient Care was presented to Dr. Ruthee-Lu Bayer, Northwell Health Cancer Institute’s system head of stem cell transplant and cellular therapy treatment and the lab.

Saladino and Dr. Vincent Vinciguerra copresented the award. Vinciguerra specializes in treating gastrointestinal cancers and breast cancer, is the principal investigator for the National Cancer Institute and had treated Don Monti at NSUH when he was a medical resident.