Save the Date! QC Celebrates 25 Years
We are excited to announce that Quality Connections will celebrate its 25th Anniversary with a big party on Saturday, November 23rd at the Elks Lodge in Flagstaff.
It will be an evening filled with memories, food, drink, dancing, and raffle prizes as we honor the journey we started in 1999.
That’s when Melissa and Armando Bernasconi founded Quality Connections in order to help a good friend, Ben Sutcliffe. Ben was incredibly intelligent and driven, but Cerebral Palsy had left him unable to speak or control his limbs. Ben wanted to have the life experiences that most of us take for granted – finding a job, falling in love, having the ability to direct our own lives – but his disability created barriers to attaining those life goals.
Quality Connections was created to assist individuals with physical or developmental disabilities to become independent, productive members of our community. It provides employment and life skills training, job placement and support, group homes, and other services to remove the barriers to a full life.
We started out with remanufacturing laser printer cartridges (Ben was in charge of our website and uploaded information and images using an adaptive communication device), which later expanded to offering office products through QC Office. Not long after that, we launched group home services and our adult day program, using Montessori techniques to help our members master everything from cooking to managing a web-based radio station.
More recently, we’ve started a preschool that helps fill the gap in high-quality early childhood education in our community – and provides training opportunities for our members who are interested in careers in child care. We also have in-home services that offer a respite for caregivers.
It’s a wide range of programs and services but with one core purpose – providing employment training and practical life skills to help northern Arizonans with disabilities achieve greater independence.
Please save the date and mark your calendar for November 23rd. We are looking forward to sharing this amazing milestone with our friends and supporters. You are the “quality connections” that have made our work possible for the past 25 years.
QC Holds Summer STAR Awards Ceremony
Last week, we held our Summer STAR Awards party to recognize the extraordinary staff and members who make up the Quality Connections family.
STAR recipients are honored for the progress they are making towards their goals – our members for the work they are doing to develop themselves and our employees for their commitment to supporting our members.
Congratulations to this season’s Silver Tree Achievement Award recipients!
Employment Services
David Schaefer, member
Evergreen Academy Preschool
Tristen Morgan, member
Sage Abreu, employee
In-Home Services
Eva Yazzie, employee
Day Program
Shannon Bell, member
Ariel Coleman, employee
Group Homes
Jack Brunner, member
Jalynn Edgewater, employee
