April 13, 2011

Adelante Welcomes New Director of Accounting 

Adelante recently welcomed Cheryl Stallard, CCP, CPA as Director of Accounting.  Stallard brings eight years of experience as a certified public accountant (previously with Miners and Company). Cheryl will be administering support to Adelante's finance department, specifically in payroll, accounts receivable, and accounts payable.

Aligning her professional life with personal beliefs is one reason she made the transition to Adelante. “I wanted to work in an environment where it made a difference for someone,” she said. By working to help people with disabilities achieve their personal goals in life, Cheryl feels she is finally making a difference in her career.

March 16, 2011

Adelante Compadres Offering Part-time Senior Supports

Adelante Development Center is taking a new approach to senior care that is more flexible and offers families and seniors more options in how they are supported.

Adelante Compadres Senior Center offers a diverse set of activities in which seniors (ages 55 and over) can participate. Families and seniors can choose the hours of support from just 1-2 days a month to allow family members to attend to appointments and errands, up to more full-time support Monday through Friday. Evening hours can also be accommodated, as necessary.

The activities available, developed to help seniors maintain their mental and physical acuity, include low-impact fitness, gardening, fine arts and crafts, music and videos, group or individual games, computers, internet access, nutritious snacks, and visits to cultural and recreational events. Adelante's Compadres offers services that meet the needs of each individual with the overall goal of helping seniors maintain their independence as much as possible.

Compadres welcomes people with dementia, Alzheimer's, and disabilities in a completely accessible site. The agency can assist with personal care, medication, and some nursing services. Each of Adelante's trained and caring staff members have been screened and gone through a thorough to a background check for the safety of the people in the agency's care.

The Compadres Senior Center is centrally located in Albuquerque's northeast heights, just a few blocks from Interstate 25 for easy access to anywhere in the city, at 5411 Osuna Road NE.

Compadres Senior Center is operated by Adelante Development Center, a local nonprofit agency. As a community resource for over 32 years, Adelante found it imperative to address the needs of our aging population by establishing services that support the needs of seniors who still want to live and learn and be a part of the community. Adelante felt there were too few options to families who wanted to avoid nursing homes for their loved ones, and would prefer more integrative, community-based services. Medicaid Waiver and private pay participants are accepted.

For a tour of the facilities or for more information about the Adelante Compadres Senior Center, please call Sharon Coleman at 505.341.7135 or email her at SColeman@GoAdelante.org .

February 22, 2011

Adelante's Desert Harvest Food Rescue Program Receives National Award  

      Adelante Development Center's Desert Harvest Food Rescue program was recently honored nationally as a Merit Finalist by the Mutual of America's Community Partnership Awards, which honor the contributions nonprofit organizations make to society.

     Despite New Mexico's agricultural bounty, hunger remains a critical problem: New Mexico lags most of the nation in food security- the ability to access enough food to live a healthy, active life. Desert Harvest Food Rescue program is a model for providing food to those in need, while providing opportunities for people with disabilities to volunteer in the community. 

      Desert Harvest salvages surplus food from restaurants, hotels, schools, and grocery stores. With funding from the PNM Foundation, that food is then distributed to 15 other agencies that support families dealing with poverty, homelessness, and domestic violence- at no cost to either the providers or the recipients. The program operates extremely efficiently, with a part-time program manager who coordinates distribution, volunteers and donor relations, and the food is distributed by volunteers, most of whom have disabilities.  

     “People with disabilities are an unrecognized resource in the community,” says Mike Kivitz, President and CEO of Adelante Development Center, a human services agency with locations throughout central New Mexico that founded Desert Harvest in 2001. “Through Desert Harvest, people with disabilities can actively participate in community life while helping others.” Adelante Development Center is dedicated to helping people with disabilities find ways to lead a rewarding life. Through Adelante, people with disabilities have clocked thousands of hours of volunteer work for Desert Harvest.

     In 2010, Desert Harvest rescued an average of 100,000 meals per month, enough to feed thousands of hungry New Mexicans. “We're having a huge impact on the communities we serve,” says Kivitz. “Because Desert Harvest charges nothing, agencies that receive food from Desert Harvest can now use their resources wholly for other services. We've offset some food budgets by 30-40%. One organization went from serving 19,000 people to 134,000 annually.

Desert Harvest and the PNM Foundation remain committed to extending the program's reach, effectiveness, and ongoing mission to end hunger in central New Mexico and beyond. The partnership recently received a state grant to expand the Food Rescue Program to the rest of the state.

February 14, 2011

Adelante Elects New Board Chair and Board Members

      Adelante Development Center recently elected Pamela Sullivan as Chair of the agency's Board of Directors. Sullivan is retired from Northrop Grumman Corporation and has served on Adelante's Board of Directors since 2007.  

      In addition, Adelante also elected two new members to its Board of Directors: Tamara Marquez Nugent, President of Moving Solutions, Inc. and Marcos Gonzales, President of Construction Technology Specialists, Inc. (CTSI). Tamara is President & CEO of Moving Solutions Inc., which is a holly woman-owned commercial relocation & distribution company founded in 2006.  Since its inception, Moving Solutions Inc. has grown from a one-woman venture to an enterprise with 30 employees.  Tamara was named New Mexico SBA Small Business Person of the Year last May.  

      Marcos is President of Construction Technology Specialists Inc. (CTSI), a government contractor doing commercial and institutional building construction.  Marcos graduated from UNM as a National Hispanic Scholar, Magna Cum Laude, with a BS in Political Science, International Relations with a Minor in Asian Studies.  

      Adelante is a local nonprofit agency that supports over 800 people with disabilities. The agency operates social enterprises that provide packaging, janitorial, mailing, scanning, and shredding services to local businesses while providing employment for people with disabilities. Adelante also offers life skills training, residential services, and volunteer opportunities for people with disabilities.

February 10, 2011

Adelante Changes “Paperless” Trends for Law Firms

      As a number of firms are embracing the current trend of converting to a “paperless” system, many are discovering a more realistic advantage to electronic document management.

      The fact remains that as business professionals, we are far from going completely “paperless” to serve the needs of our customers. This is the reality a number of industries face in managing confidential documents, such as law firms, healthcare providers, or financial institutions. Although many documents are important to keep on hand for customer or legal purposes, firms often sacrifice efficiency with asted document storage space that could be imaged and recycled.

      Rather than attempting to save money by eliminating paper altogether, firms are discovering that changing the way they manage documents could maximize efficiency in many aspects. Electronic file systems allow managers to create a manageable, timesaving set of records, and utilize office space for more important purposes other than file storage. Electronic files can also be accessed more quickly, rather than searching through dozens of files for a single document. Shredding paper documents after scanning allows for enhanced customer confidentiality, and is a positive “green” practice for businesses managing high volumes of documents, such as law firms.  

      Adelante Enterprises provides scanning and secure document destruction for businesses conscious about enhancing customer confidentiality and green environmental practices. For nearly 25 years, Adelante has allowed firms to focus on their core business objectives, leaving document management to the experts. For information about Adelante Enterprises, visit www.AdelanteEnterprises.com.

September 22, 2010

Adelante Opens Compadres Senior Center

Adelante Development Center, a local nonprofit agency, has opened a newly remodeled senior services site, called Compadres Senior Center at 5411 Osuna Road NE in Albuquerque.

Compadres Senior Center offers a diverse set of activities in which seniors 55 or over can participate. The activities available, developed to help seniors maintain their mental and physical acuity, include low-impact fitness, gardening, fine arts and crafts, music and videos, group or individual games, computers, internet access, nutritious snacks, and visits to cultural and recreational events. Support services are currently offered during weekday hours, but Adelante is considering expanding to evenings and weekends or even overnight services based on community needs and feedback. The Compadres Senior Center is centrally located in Albuquerque's northeast heights, just a few blocks from Interstate 25 for easy access to anywhere in the city.

As a community resource for over 32 years, Adelante found it imperative to begin addressing the needs of our aging population, and establishing services that support the needs of seniors who still want to live and learn and be a part of the community. In addition, Adelante felt there were too few options to families who wanted to avoid nursing homes for their loved ones, and would prefer more integrative, community-based services. Medicaid Waiver and private pay participants are accepted.

For a tour of the facilities or for more information about the Adelante Compadres Senior Center, please call Sharon Coleman at 505.341.7135 or email her at Scoleman@GoAdelante.org.

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