“This structured environment is good for my daughter. She can interact with peers outside of a classroom setting while experiencing a diverse range of activities that encourage socialization and collaboration with the development of interpersonal skills,” shared by a parent of a child in our new I/DD program (children and adolescents with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities - I/DD. “Children with Exceptional Needs” is the phrase that comes to mind combined with the words “Exceptional Opportunities” to describe our pilot outreach program to address current members of our Boys & Girls Clubs as well as engage other children in the community. As part of our Boys & Girls Club California Alliance and our collaboration with local agencies that address I/DD (which has an array of development classifications) we have opened our doors, minds and hearts to children who may benefit from our enrichment, education, and social bonding programs.
Team member working with Club youth.
We can say that this venture in taking a deeper dive in the I/DD arena has definitely challenged, stretched, and taught us valuable and important youth development lessons that will not only impact our ability to serve children with exceptional needs, but to serve all children. Our goal is to help every child experience personal growth and fulfillment while at the Club. We started by identifying our agency partners in this field and hired a professional consultant to train team members in building knowledge, skills, strategies and connecting with resources that could be useful in working with children. We were then fortunate enough to engage a seasoned former school administrator, Warcester Williams, to work with our parents and team on establishing individual plans for each child. He networks to align with schools that our children attend and where they already have plans in place; coaches our team on specific scenarios focused on safety for everyone; provides on-going training; and helps us adapt our youth development strategies to incorporate services for children with exceptional needs. Where are we now? We are still in our infancy…but, we’re progressing. This effort has refocused our attention to existing children in the program that fall into this category and support them in enhanced ways. We have new members trying the Club out and engaging with the team and other children. Every child is different, so this is a process. And in some cases, it works very well. We still have challenges with children who may have incontinence issues, those who physically act out, or children who are classified as “elopers.” And while the bathroom situation resolution is still in the works, we have had some luck identifying the triggers for our “elopers” (which happens with many children not in the I/DD category) and of course, the reimagining of our facility safeguards to keep children from leaving program locations is ever evolving. Despite some of the challenges, the new I/DD program is so essential for serving youth in our community and we are committed to making it work. And as always, we are grateful for the support from our community – local, county, and state, that allows us to expand our reach and further our mission of serving children who need us the most.
Club Members prepaing for after school program.
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