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More on Cassidy's Place Ribbon Cutting Press Release For More Information: website: http://www.a-b-c.org/ Cassidy's Place is the home of the Association to Benefit Children's national children's advocacy efforts. It also houses comprehensive family support services, the kinship foster care and adoption program, an integrated developmental day care for homeless children whose parents participate in employment programs, an innovative mentoring program and a therapeutic day nursery for some of New York City's most medically fragile children. The Cassidy's Place therapeutic nursery, a warm and nurturing setting, ensures the close attention and special therapies essential for optimizing the social, emotional, cognitive and physical development of each child. Its special focus is on children up to age 5 who suffer from severe disabilities and serious medical conditions such as cancer and AIDS. The program provides the array of services necessary to meet each family member's needs and includes educational, medical, nutritional, rehabilitative, psychological and language therapy services. Family support groups and individual counseling are integral parts of the program. Because Cassidy's Place serves children with life-threatening illnesses, the program is specifically designed for managing children's medical needs while simultaneously meeting their educational, social and emotional needs. Children who require daily infusions are given treatments during the school day by medically trained staff members, thereby often eliminating the need for hospitalizations.. Where once children who require outpatient infusions and other treatments would have been faced with overnight hospitalizations in sterile settings, they may now receive that same treatment at Cassidy's Place in a warm, stimulating, more normal environment that meets their psychological needs. To ensure that the children are given as much of an enriched and challenging environment as possible, ABC has built both a rooftop playground and an outside backyard playground specifically designed for children with very special needs. For terminally ill children and their families, that means continually addressing the issue of balancing medical needs with emotional needs and evaluating the child's physical status on a daily basis. These special outdoor play spaces also give the children the freedom to use their physical energy in a playful outdoor environment without compromising their safety. At Cassidy's Place, the combination of on-site services -- medical, educational, therapeutic and family-support -- eases the burden on poor families and enables our Cassidy's Place children to live the best lives they can for as long as they can. Furthermore, because advocacy is one of ABC's main roles, Cassidy's Place strives to educate the public about both the needs and potential of vulnerable children, and is a model program for aprompt, cost-effective and humane investment in them and their families.