Be Healthy: Monte Grant to Help Streamline Access to Children’s Behavioral Therapies

By DAVID CRUZ

Vital Stats: 35K – Number of children served by the Healthy Steps Program (Source: Montefiore Health System) For parents of developmentally delayed children, time is critical for improving their child’s outcome. But accessing behavioral therapies can be a slow and complicated process, posing a problem for children aged 3 to 5 whose developmental stalls can go overlooked. But a pilot program by Montefiore Health System, set to launch in a few weeks, looks to streamline the process, thanks to a $70,000 grant it received from the United Hospital Fund. Partnerships for Early Childhood Development, as the pilot program is called, intends

By SHANNON MEEHAN of WFUV

The Norwood News and WFUV continue their five-part series profiling ongoing challenges impacting the Bronx. When Dr. Eric Gayle, a family physician, began treating patients in the Bronx 20 years ago, assessing a patient’s ability to comprehend health information, known as health literacy, wasn’t part of his initial health assessment. That changed after a surprising revelation made by one of his long-standing patients. Despite his patient telling him she understood how to read directions he wrote on the back of a prescription, Dr. Gayle soon learned he was misled. His patient didn’t know how to read. “I was stunned,” says

By DAVID CRUZ

The New York State Appeals Court has ruled Junior High School 80 in Norwood receive a $3 million grant that was stripped away by the state last year after officials took the near century-old school off a so-called turnaround list for chronically failing schools. But the grant remains imperiled since the state has one last shot of denying the funds at a hearing in May. JHS 80, resting on a hilltop on Mosholu Parkway North, was part of a class action lawsuit filed last September claiming the state’s budget director illegally froze taxpayer grants intended to improve school performance

By DYLAN CROLL

The NYPD is on the lookout for a suspect who stole $301 in cash from the back pocket of a 59 year-old man inside of a bodega in Kingsbridge Heights. Police say the suspect walked into 77 E. Kingsbridge Rd. around 4 p.m. on March 22. The perpetrator, caught on camera, was identified by police as a male Hispanic ranging anywhere from 16 to 21 years old and estimated to be around 5-4-5’6, weighing 130 lbs -140 lbs. He was last seen wearing a black hooded sweater, black jacket, blue jeans, and black sneakers. Nobody was hurt in the incident.

Editor’s Pick Free Physical Activities Open House The public is invited to a free Inaugural Adaptive Sports Open House at the Williamsbridge Oval, April 1 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (meet outside the Recreation Center). Events include hands-on equipment demonstrations, participation in sample adaptive sports sessions, educational health materials, and a 1-mile walk around Oval Park with the docs at Montefiore. Adaptive sports offers physical activity for people with disabilities. For more information, call (718) 547-4940. Onstage The Williamsbridge Oval’s Recreation Center hosts William Shakespeare’s “The Twelfth Night,” April 8 at 1 p.m. RSVP to sarah.bishow@parks.nyc.gov. For more information,

Hello Loyal Readers! The latest edition of the Norwood News, covering all things Norwood and its surrounding communities, is out with plenty of news you can use. We begin, of course, with page 1, and a front cover story on issues within the city Education Department’s Gifted and Talented programs. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., and his counterpart in Brooklyn, Eric Adams, have a task force underway that’s examining these inequalities. Read the lengths parents are willing to make to ensure their kids are in a program that’s seen as a ticket to specialized high schools, which help pave a

Just more than $3 billion in residential, commercial and institutional projects have been pumped into the Bronx in 2016, according to a newly released report, signaling a continued trend of a Bronx on the mend. But the report hedges its bets somewhat, throwing in its report the Kingsbridge National Ice Center project, which was mired in delays and near extinction last year. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., which drafted the report and presented it at a forum focusing on development projects in the Bronx, included the $350 million project in the report nonetheless. The KNIC project stalled after developers

Brooklyn Man Charged in Shooting Death of Norwood Man

By DAVID CRUZ

Police from the 52nd Precinct have charged a 32-year-old man wanted in the shooting death of a Norwood man during the overnight hours of March 29. Jamal Burnel of the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn was charged with shooting the victim, identified as 46-year-old Michael Vermong, killed outside his home at 3110 Bainbridge Ave. at the corner of East 205th Street just before 3 a.m., according to police. He was pronounced dead at Montefiore Medical Center a few hours later. Police told the Daily News the incident started over drugs, and intensified with violence, with Burnel brandishing a gun and opening fire.

Neighborhood Notes: Free Immigration Service

By DAVID CRUZ

Montefiore Health System was stunned to learn the deaths of two patients who took their own lives a week apart. “We are deeply saddened by these recent events and our hearts go out to the affected families and staff,” a spokesperson for the widely utilized hospital, said. “In the wake of these two unrelated events, staff and family members are being offered grief counseling services. We will continue to monitor and support the families and our associates through this difficult time.” The latest incident happened March 28 at Montefiore’s Moses Campus in Norwood, which admits and releases a whopping 47,000