February 10, 2025 • 15 mins
Queens Centers for Progress hosts the 29th annual EVENING OF FINE FOOD on February 25, 2025, in support of adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Our guest is Terri Ross, Executive Director of Queens Centers for Progress, an organization committed to providing person-centered services and supports to children and adults who have developmental disabilities. For more, including tickets, visit queenscp.org.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to get connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Thanks for listening to get connected with an invitation for
an annual foody event for a fantastic cause. Queen Centers
for Progress hosts the twenty ninth annual Evening of Fine
Food on February twenty fifth, in support of adults and
children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I'm very pleased to
welcome Terry Ross, Executive director of Queen Centers for Progress,
(00:35):
to the show. Terry Ross, very nice to meet you.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hi, Nice to meet you too. This is wonderful. Thank
you for having me on.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Queen Centers for Progress is committed to providing person services
and supports to children and adults with developmental disabilities. They
promote independence, community involvement and quality of life. Their website
for more information about their work and the event we're
talking about is QUEEN'SCPT. Terry, I want to go back
a little bit. What does it mean person centered services?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Person centered services means that each person that we support
is an individual. They have their own wants and needs,
and every service that we provide is provided to the individual.
So even when we have groups of people, we do
(01:29):
things with everybody's involved.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So Queens Centers for Progress as served or serves now
about fifteen hundred people. Tell us about them a little
bit more, I guess yeah. We have children's programs. We
have supported employment where people go out. Adults go out
into the community and work in places like you and
I are working for a minimum or prevailing wage. We
(01:58):
have pre vocational service. We have day services where adults
learn this basic skills.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
That you and I need to survive and use their
communities and have relationships and do wonderful things with their
day like you and I do, and it's terrific. We
have an Article sixteen clinic where people can come to
(02:26):
get into programs like hours, and we have nine group homes,
nine residentss in the community and Queens where people live
and thrive.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
A little bit about the history, so Queens Centers for
Progress goes back to about nineteen fifty. You've been this
organization supporting residents living with developmental disabilities since then? Can
you talk about that path over time?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
In nineteen fifty, a wonderful group of women in Queens
wanted to give back to their community, and they went
to the local high hospital and were told that there
were children with cerebral palsy who needed a place to
go to school. They didn't fit into the regular schools
(03:10):
at the time, so the first Children's center was born.
As the children aged, the adults then needed programs and services,
and our building on one hundred and sixty fourth Street,
our main building was built. People were learning vocational skills
(03:33):
at the time in sheltered workshops and from those programs,
our day programs were born. Our residences came out of there,
or clinic came out of there, and our supported employment
program came out of there. And now we work with
well over fifteen hundred people in the Borough of Queen's.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Our guest is Terry Ross, executive director of Queen's Centers
for Progress. They have an upcoming event on February twenty fifth,
the twenty ninth annual Evening of Fine Food. You've been
doing this a long time. You can find out more
at queenscp dot org. You're listening to get connected on
one O six point seven light FM. I'm in a
del rio. We'll go back to talk about your work.
(04:17):
Let's talk about the event coming up, an evening of
fine food. Tell us about the evening.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
The evening is the most fun that we have all year.
We have close to forty food vendors at Terrace on
the Park and over six hundred people attended last year.
We're gonna probably get to that this year. It's amazing.
We have chefs from all over Queens, restaurants from all
(04:47):
over Queens, and I get very full when when I
walk around greeting everyone. The food is amazing. We have
some wonderful Chefs of the Year who are supporting us
this year. Sharon Devivo is president of Vaughan College and
Uzo Okoye is the chief of staff at Terminal one
(05:13):
at JFK Airport, and they are both the Chefs of
the Year are recognized for their exemplary leadership in the
Queen's community. They prepare their favorite family recipe and literally
serve the community in a much different way than they
already do.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
For anyone who's never been to one of these types
of events, because it's open to everybody.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yes, absolutely absolutely, we would love to have people come
and join us.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And there's all price points of tickets by now. Now
you start at one fifteen and then it goes up.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yes, individual tickets are one point fifty. We have corporate
sponsorship packages including VIP seating and early VIP entry and
they all can be purchased online.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So you you buy your ticket, you walk around. The
food is what are you having?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
It's a terrace on the park. The vendors serve everything
from Italian food to Asian food, to chocolates to beverages.
It's just a wonderful food experience.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So this is the twenty ninth anniversary of this event.
How has it changed over the years.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Oh, yes, It's started as a small event to terrace
on the park and now we take up a whole
floor and it is just an amazing it's an amazing event.
It's grown and grown. We have more vendors, we have
more people attending, and it's just a happy place to be.
(06:44):
It really is a wonderful place to be.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
So do you have any guests or businesses you're especially
excited to see this year?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Absolutely? We have my favorite Eigner Chocolates, Austin's Alehouse, Bevo's Kitchen,
Bourbon Street, Brooklyn Brewery, Ilbaco New York, Kaitour Restaurant, Marbella
Restaurant in Catering Mom's Kitchen, New York City, Near's Tavern,
(07:14):
One Station Plaza, Ringcone, Salvadorino Restaurant, Special Suites, the Wine
Room of Forest Hills, and Trotteria thirty five. We also
will be joined by ten Day sixty three Meal LLC,
Khalil Biriani House, Maule Restaurant and Bar, and Miss Sauce Plates,
(07:40):
Culinary Horizon LLC. A lot of beautiful restaurants.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So this event you have all the food options, there's
the honourees, all that kind of stuff. It's for supporting
the work you do. Can you talk about where the
funding goes and who the proceeds support.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Absolutely, Queen's Centers for Progress is funded mostly. Our adult
programs are funded mostly by Medicaid. Our children's program is
funded mostly by the State Education Department. And the fundraising
adds to our budgets because the Medicaid and SED funding
(08:22):
is not enough to keep our programs operational. So we
rely very heavily on our fundraising and this really keeps
us alive and allows us to do the things that
we need to do to support people in Queen's with
developmental disabilities.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
If a family did not have access to programs like these,
how might they be able to afford them? How were
they you know, how do people get involved?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yeah? Yeah, without without funding, our programs would cease to
exist because it takes a lot of hands to do
the work that we do. A lot of people need
very specialized attention. We take people out into the community
every day in small groups. We would not be able
(09:11):
to run our programs without the funding that we get,
and we just break even.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
You've been doing this work a very long time, I know,
over forty years. Can you talk a little bit about
how the opportunities for independence and community involvement, both for
and within the community have changed over time. What have
you seen?
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I actually started in this field when I graduated college
in nineteen seventy three, so it's been over fifty years
that I've been working with people with developmental disabilities, and
it has changed enormously. The role that people with IDD
play in the community has changed. All of our programs
(09:58):
go out, we part ti anticipate. We're wonderful employees in
well over one hundred and twenty places out in the
community where we work. Our individuals work with the assistance
of job coaches. We also have enormous volunteer programs. We're
(10:20):
out helping food pantries, helping keep the streets and the
parks clean. We're out and well well over one hundred
different volunteer sites in the communities.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Just to put an image on that or help people
figure out exactly what you're talking about. Can you think
of someone in the last few years who has had
an opportunity or has been able to expand their world
in a way that would not have been possible when
you started.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Absolutely I can think of numerous people, one in particular,
who loves to go out, loves to work in his
local church and helps to keep the church clean, helps
to put everything back together when services are over, works
in a food pantry several days a week, then goes
(11:13):
out into the community for himself and gets to go
out for lunch in a restaurant and go use the community,
go to the drug store and buy himself the things
that he needs in the drug store. And he's learning
to the skills that he needs hopefully to get to
(11:34):
the next step where he will get a job out
in the community.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And this is something that twenty five years ago Yeah,
wasn't going to happen.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Absolutely not, absolutely not. People in the communities find the
people that we support very valuable members of their own communities.
So we teach skills to people right in their own communities.
So this particular individual can go to a drug store
(12:05):
in his own community and learn how to find the
items that he wants, how to pay for the items,
how to not get ripped off what he pays he
how to count his change, and how to plan a day,
plan his seven days in the community. Basic self sufficiency
(12:27):
and dignity. Absolutely, Dignity and respect are the most important
things that we help people to get into in their
own lives.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
And this event coming up funds your work, as you said,
it just kind of keeps the wheels going. It is
a huge event. The Queen Centers for Progress twenty ninth
Annual Evening of Fine Food on February twenty fifth. You
want to repeat where it is and a little bit
about it.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Oh, it is. It's wonderful. The Evening of Fine Foods
featuring restaurants from across Queens at Terrace on the Park
on Tuesday, February twenty fifth. We're also celebrating our seventy
fifth anniversary with this amazing event honoring the Chefs of
(13:15):
the Year Sharon B. Devivo from Vaughan College and Uzo
Okemi from New Terminal one at Kennedy Airports AFK Airport.
We also are hosting the Claire Shulman Spirit of Community
Awardie Rachel Kellner from Ainer Chocolates, and we're featuring a
(13:39):
number of restaurants in the community, including Ainer Chocolates, Austin Alehouse,
Bevo's Kitchen, Bourbon Street, Ilbaco, New York Kaita Restaurant, Marbella
Restaurant and Catering, Mom's Kitchens, New York Near's Tavern, One
Station Plaza, Ring Home, Salsoderamio Restaurant, Special Suites, The Wine
(14:05):
Room of Forest Hills, Trona Ria thirty five, ten sixty
three Meal LLC, Khalil Birani House, Maule Restaurant and Bar,
and Miss Sauce Plates, Culinary Horizon LLC. And there's more
to come.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
When you think about so many food choices from all
these restaurants, one hundred and fifty dollars to come in
seems pretty affordable, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
It certainly is, It certainly is and we promise everybody
an amazing evening. There's a lot of fun, this music,
it's terrific, and a lot of mingling.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
And a lot of mingling and you get to dress up.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
You can find out more at QUEENSCP dot org. Terry
Ross is executive director of Queens Centers for Progress. Thank
you for joining me on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one of TXO point seven light Fm. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one oh six seven lightfm dot com.
Thanks for listening.
Welcome to get connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven light FM.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Thanks for listening to get connected with an invitation for
an annual foody event for a fantastic cause. Queen Centers
for Progress hosts the twenty ninth annual Evening of Fine
Food on February twenty fifth, in support of adults and
children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I'm very pleased to
welcome Terry Ross, Executive director of Queen Centers for Progress,
(00:35):
to the show. Terry Ross, very nice to meet you.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hi, Nice to meet you too. This is wonderful. Thank
you for having me on.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Queen Centers for Progress is committed to providing person services
and supports to children and adults with developmental disabilities. They
promote independence, community involvement and quality of life. Their website
for more information about their work and the event we're
talking about is QUEEN'SCPT. Terry, I want to go back
a little bit. What does it mean person centered services?
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Person centered services means that each person that we support
is an individual. They have their own wants and needs,
and every service that we provide is provided to the individual.
So even when we have groups of people, we do
(01:29):
things with everybody's involved.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So Queens Centers for Progress as served or serves now
about fifteen hundred people. Tell us about them a little
bit more, I guess yeah. We have children's programs. We
have supported employment where people go out. Adults go out
into the community and work in places like you and
I are working for a minimum or prevailing wage. We
(01:58):
have pre vocational service. We have day services where adults
learn this basic skills.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
That you and I need to survive and use their
communities and have relationships and do wonderful things with their
day like you and I do, and it's terrific. We
have an Article sixteen clinic where people can come to
(02:26):
get into programs like hours, and we have nine group homes,
nine residentss in the community and Queens where people live
and thrive.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
A little bit about the history, so Queens Centers for
Progress goes back to about nineteen fifty. You've been this
organization supporting residents living with developmental disabilities since then? Can
you talk about that path over time?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
In nineteen fifty, a wonderful group of women in Queens
wanted to give back to their community, and they went
to the local high hospital and were told that there
were children with cerebral palsy who needed a place to
go to school. They didn't fit into the regular schools
(03:10):
at the time, so the first Children's center was born.
As the children aged, the adults then needed programs and services,
and our building on one hundred and sixty fourth Street,
our main building was built. People were learning vocational skills
(03:33):
at the time in sheltered workshops and from those programs,
our day programs were born. Our residences came out of there,
or clinic came out of there, and our supported employment
program came out of there. And now we work with
well over fifteen hundred people in the Borough of Queen's.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Our guest is Terry Ross, executive director of Queen's Centers
for Progress. They have an upcoming event on February twenty fifth,
the twenty ninth annual Evening of Fine Food. You've been
doing this a long time. You can find out more
at queenscp dot org. You're listening to get connected on
one O six point seven light FM. I'm in a
del rio. We'll go back to talk about your work.
(04:17):
Let's talk about the event coming up, an evening of
fine food. Tell us about the evening.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
The evening is the most fun that we have all year.
We have close to forty food vendors at Terrace on
the Park and over six hundred people attended last year.
We're gonna probably get to that this year. It's amazing.
We have chefs from all over Queens, restaurants from all
(04:47):
over Queens, and I get very full when when I
walk around greeting everyone. The food is amazing. We have
some wonderful Chefs of the Year who are supporting us
this year. Sharon Devivo is president of Vaughan College and
Uzo Okoye is the chief of staff at Terminal one
(05:13):
at JFK Airport, and they are both the Chefs of
the Year are recognized for their exemplary leadership in the
Queen's community. They prepare their favorite family recipe and literally
serve the community in a much different way than they
already do.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
For anyone who's never been to one of these types
of events, because it's open to everybody.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yes, absolutely absolutely, we would love to have people come
and join us.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And there's all price points of tickets by now. Now
you start at one fifteen and then it goes up.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yes, individual tickets are one point fifty. We have corporate
sponsorship packages including VIP seating and early VIP entry and
they all can be purchased online.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
So you you buy your ticket, you walk around. The
food is what are you having?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
It's a terrace on the park. The vendors serve everything
from Italian food to Asian food, to chocolates to beverages.
It's just a wonderful food experience.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
So this is the twenty ninth anniversary of this event.
How has it changed over the years.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
Oh, yes, It's started as a small event to terrace
on the park and now we take up a whole
floor and it is just an amazing it's an amazing event.
It's grown and grown. We have more vendors, we have
more people attending, and it's just a happy place to be.
(06:44):
It really is a wonderful place to be.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
So do you have any guests or businesses you're especially
excited to see this year?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Absolutely? We have my favorite Eigner Chocolates, Austin's Alehouse, Bevo's Kitchen,
Bourbon Street, Brooklyn Brewery, Ilbaco New York, Kaitour Restaurant, Marbella
Restaurant in Catering Mom's Kitchen, New York City, Near's Tavern,
(07:14):
One Station Plaza, Ringcone, Salvadorino Restaurant, Special Suites, the Wine
Room of Forest Hills, and Trotteria thirty five. We also
will be joined by ten Day sixty three Meal LLC,
Khalil Biriani House, Maule Restaurant and Bar, and Miss Sauce Plates,
(07:40):
Culinary Horizon LLC. A lot of beautiful restaurants.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So this event you have all the food options, there's
the honourees, all that kind of stuff. It's for supporting
the work you do. Can you talk about where the
funding goes and who the proceeds support.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Absolutely, Queen's Centers for Progress is funded mostly. Our adult
programs are funded mostly by Medicaid. Our children's program is
funded mostly by the State Education Department. And the fundraising
adds to our budgets because the Medicaid and SED funding
(08:22):
is not enough to keep our programs operational. So we
rely very heavily on our fundraising and this really keeps
us alive and allows us to do the things that
we need to do to support people in Queen's with
developmental disabilities.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
If a family did not have access to programs like these,
how might they be able to afford them? How were
they you know, how do people get involved?
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Yeah? Yeah, without without funding, our programs would cease to
exist because it takes a lot of hands to do
the work that we do. A lot of people need
very specialized attention. We take people out into the community
every day in small groups. We would not be able
(09:11):
to run our programs without the funding that we get,
and we just break even.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
You've been doing this work a very long time, I know,
over forty years. Can you talk a little bit about
how the opportunities for independence and community involvement, both for
and within the community have changed over time. What have
you seen?
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I actually started in this field when I graduated college
in nineteen seventy three, so it's been over fifty years
that I've been working with people with developmental disabilities, and
it has changed enormously. The role that people with IDD
play in the community has changed. All of our programs
(09:58):
go out, we part ti anticipate. We're wonderful employees in
well over one hundred and twenty places out in the
community where we work. Our individuals work with the assistance
of job coaches. We also have enormous volunteer programs. We're
(10:20):
out helping food pantries, helping keep the streets and the
parks clean. We're out and well well over one hundred
different volunteer sites in the communities.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Just to put an image on that or help people
figure out exactly what you're talking about. Can you think
of someone in the last few years who has had
an opportunity or has been able to expand their world
in a way that would not have been possible when
you started.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Absolutely I can think of numerous people, one in particular,
who loves to go out, loves to work in his
local church and helps to keep the church clean, helps
to put everything back together when services are over, works
in a food pantry several days a week, then goes
(11:13):
out into the community for himself and gets to go
out for lunch in a restaurant and go use the community,
go to the drug store and buy himself the things
that he needs in the drug store. And he's learning
to the skills that he needs hopefully to get to
(11:34):
the next step where he will get a job out
in the community.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
And this is something that twenty five years ago Yeah,
wasn't going to happen.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Absolutely not, absolutely not. People in the communities find the
people that we support very valuable members of their own communities.
So we teach skills to people right in their own communities.
So this particular individual can go to a drug store
(12:05):
in his own community and learn how to find the
items that he wants, how to pay for the items,
how to not get ripped off what he pays he
how to count his change, and how to plan a day,
plan his seven days in the community. Basic self sufficiency
(12:27):
and dignity. Absolutely, Dignity and respect are the most important
things that we help people to get into in their
own lives.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
And this event coming up funds your work, as you said,
it just kind of keeps the wheels going. It is
a huge event. The Queen Centers for Progress twenty ninth
Annual Evening of Fine Food on February twenty fifth. You
want to repeat where it is and a little bit
about it.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Oh, it is. It's wonderful. The Evening of Fine Foods
featuring restaurants from across Queens at Terrace on the Park
on Tuesday, February twenty fifth. We're also celebrating our seventy
fifth anniversary with this amazing event honoring the Chefs of
(13:15):
the Year Sharon B. Devivo from Vaughan College and Uzo
Okemi from New Terminal one at Kennedy Airports AFK Airport.
We also are hosting the Claire Shulman Spirit of Community
Awardie Rachel Kellner from Ainer Chocolates, and we're featuring a
(13:39):
number of restaurants in the community, including Ainer Chocolates, Austin Alehouse,
Bevo's Kitchen, Bourbon Street, Ilbaco, New York Kaita Restaurant, Marbella
Restaurant and Catering, Mom's Kitchens, New York Near's Tavern, One
Station Plaza, Ring Home, Salsoderamio Restaurant, Special Suites, The Wine
(14:05):
Room of Forest Hills, Trona Ria thirty five, ten sixty
three Meal LLC, Khalil Birani House, Maule Restaurant and Bar,
and Miss Sauce Plates, Culinary Horizon LLC. And there's more
to come.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
When you think about so many food choices from all
these restaurants, one hundred and fifty dollars to come in
seems pretty affordable, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
It certainly is, It certainly is and we promise everybody
an amazing evening. There's a lot of fun, this music,
it's terrific, and a lot of mingling.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
And a lot of mingling and you get to dress up.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Oh absolutely.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
You can find out more at QUEENSCP dot org. Terry
Ross is executive director of Queens Centers for Progress. Thank
you for joining me on Get Connected.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one of TXO point seven light Fm. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website for
downloads and podcasts at one oh six seven lightfm dot com.
Thanks for listening.
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