Unity House Consumer Scott Polcovich CONTACT: Paul Marron

Date 07/24/08

Unity House Consumer Scott Polcovich CONTACT: Paul Marron

Succeeds With Personality, Strong Support 315-258-9531 ext. 213

AUBURN – Confident. Well-adjusted. Liked if not loved by every one whose path crosses his. Lovable and very, very funny.

By all accounts, 19 year-old Scott Polcovich, makes a positive, lasting impression wherever he goes.

A June 27, 2008 graduate of Auburn High School who was nominated and recognized as the “Most Unforgettable Student” by the school’s class of 2008 and crowned king of that same class’s high school prom held this past May, and true friends with a large number and variety of adolescent peers and adults, the Auburn, N.Y. native born with Down Syndrome sports an already impressive list of accomplishments that bodes well for his future goal of developing independent living skills and living on his own. Among the many Unity House professionals who have met Scott and his extremely supportive parents, Ron and Karen, and who will be working with him and them in the coming months to help develop those skills, there is little if any doubt that this remarkable young man will succeed with his goal.

“Part of how far Scott has progressed already really has a lot to do with his personality, which is more unusual in some ways than for most individuals with his particular disability,” says Jaeseena Bertot, the Medicaid service coordinator at Unity House who orchestrated Polcovich’s participation with the agency’s Auburn-based Unity Employment Services (UES) and also arranged for his enrollment in the organization’s Auburn day habilitation program. “He’s very curious and has an eager attitude about things. He’s also essentially kind, has a terrific sense of humor, and a young person’s enthusiasm. All in all, he is very, very likeable. Throw in the incredible parental and family support he’s received and it’s easy to understand why he has accomplished so much already and why his chances of achieving his goal of independent living are better than average.”

Karen Polcovich, a special education teacher at Seward Elementary School in Auburn since February 2008 whose previous experience includes 11 years as a special education teacher’s aide and three years as a parent advocate, agrees that her son’s special personality has been a plus in his maturation.

“He has had a really lovable personality ever since he could talk,” she smiles. “It has been a plus helping him gain all the friendships he has with his typical peers and the loyalty and support they give him. Who knows, maybe it has something to do with the fact that Scottie was born on Valentine’s Day in 1989.”

Stefanie Coleman, a “12-1” (12 students to one teacher to one aide) special education teacher at Auburn High School who for four years there taught Scott job and social skills and reading, writing, and mathematics to his ability and needs, echoes every one’s impression of him.

“He is a great, great kid and was a one-in-a-lifetime student,” she says. “He did well with us and met all our academic expectations. He was so well-liked by every body. I’m so very sorry to see him go because I’ll miss him terribly and because no matter what kind of day you were having, Scott has that gift of being able to put a smile on your face. He was always positive and upbeat and absolutely loved to be around people. With his supportive family and the great experiences they’ve already given him and his incredible siblings, I know he’ll succeed in his next steps.”

Scott’s parents knew those next steps culminating in his recent graduation from high school would be a turning point for him and their mutual goal of independent living.

“We never sought external help with Scott up to now because he had such extraordinary support in all the schools he’s attended and because we have a close family that has always been able to meet his needs,” said Scott’s father, Ron, who works as a corrections officer at the Auburn Correctional Facility. “But, even before Scott graduated from high school and entered into adulthood, we knew developing his living skills to get him as independent as possible would be a key to his future success. That’s when we started looking at things more from his perspective and more at his desires and needs, and started to better explore Unity House.”

Ron said he and Karen were well aware of Unity House’s services and programs in general and the reputation it had empowering individuals like Scott to achieve the independence they desired.

“Unity House has been in the community so long you can’t not know about it and what it does,” he declared. “We started looking more into the agency starting with the 2007 Christmas Open House event and followed that up getting more information and meeting more people. We came away with a very good feeling about the organization and decided to pursue how it could best help Scott reach his goal of living on his own.”

That led the Polcovichs to Bertot and Scott’s subsequent encounters with Unity House’s employment services, which has already begun working with him, and the agency’s day habilitation program, which expects to begin growing his independent living skills this summer.

“Scott has entered the development phase of our employment services process,” says UES-Auburn site manager Brenda Murphy. “We have completed our assessments and have assigned Tiffany McLane, our placement coordinator, to work with Scott. He’s a joy – we loved meeting him and how he cracks jokes and can grasp matters quickly. We were really, really impressed with his many subtleties that seem very atypical of individuals with Down Syndrome.”

Murphy says she and McLane quickly realized Scott loved working in and around food service, largely because his personality was energized in the presence of the people and activity at the heart of that type of business. She adds that because of how Scott’s personality lends itself so well to working with and impressing people, they would strongly consider placing him in an employment setting in need of greeting and/or hosting customers. Such a development would be an extension of his high school employment experience, which encompassed stints at a Denny’s restaurant and a Rite Aid drug store, both in Auburn, and at Auburn Leather Crafters.

Besides working two to three days a week, Scott also plans to pursue additional education at the BOCES Vocational Life Skills program located on the Cayuga Community College campus in Auburn. That service offers young adults with disabilities a curriculum geared towards continuous learning on a functional, practical level which, when mastered, plays a vital role in achieving independence. It is well-aligned with what Scott’s father and mother have initiated with him and know he needs to maintain.

“It sounds like a program for just what he needs and for what we’ve actually been working on with him,” says Ron. “Things like money exchange and an allowance and getting as comfortable as possible with money, and back and forth transportation schedules and all those other necessities he’ll face. As hard as that can be, it’s also exciting for him and us and we appreciate him having the chance to do all this.”

Meeting Scott is an experience one won’t soon forget (if ever). When addressed, he looks directly at you and displays an infectious smile while responding. He professes an attraction to bowling at the Cedar Lanes on the outskirts of the village of Skaneateles, N.Y. and an affinity for the Auburn Doubledays, the city’s baseball team and 2007 minor league (AA) champions. He also likes theater (evidenced by his participation in the Auburn High School production of ‘Up the Down Staircase’ in which a special, five-line part was created solely for him) and absolutely loves going to the movies. As with his love of food service, these and just about every activity Scott has experienced and enjoys has the common thread of interaction with people.

When Scott was asked if he has thought about what his future independent living accommodations might include, Ron points out that he owns a rental property in Auburn that is half-occupied by another family member and that that could always be a possibility for Scott. Upon realizing that such a possibility might therefore also translate into a reduced or even free rent, Scott raises both hands, smiles his smile and, amidst his father laughing and shaking his head and his mother grinning from ear to ear, exclaims with glee, “Yes!”

No doubt, ‘yes’ will sum up the future success Scott Polcovich seems destined to achieve.

NOTE: Jaeseena Bertot, Scott’s Medicaid Service coordinator, reported the week of July 14, 2008 that Unity Employment Services and Scott had obtained placement for him. Following a successful interview, Scott started working July 23, 2008 at Daddabbo’s Pizzeria in Auburn, N.Y.

Unity House of Cayuga County Inc.

Transitional Living ~ Permanent Housing ~ Rehabilitative Services ~ Employment