Serving Topsfield, Boxford, and Middleton, Massachusetts
|
Serving Topsfield, Boxford, and Middleton, Massachusetts
|
|
|
Disability Awareness Starts Here empowers individuals and schools to...
...make a difference, ...get involved, ...share a friendship with someone who may be different from yourself.
What is DASH? Introduced in 1994, the DASH program is an innovative, hands-on sensitivity awareness experience for children of elementary school age. The purpose of the program is to create an awareness among children, teachers, and parents to the needs of people who are disabled. It is a program about friendship, about differences as well as similarities, and about the value of those differences. Our emphasis is on abilities rather than disabilities. With the assistance of parents, teachers and community volunteers, students are given opportunities to learn about different disabilities including:
The students participate in small group discussions as well as with hands-on activities in the classroom. Guest presenters are invited at the end of each session to speak with the children, discussing daily life with a particular disability.
How Can I Help? DASH is a volunteer driven program. You need not be an expert to help! In fact, many of the volunteer parents say they learn as much as the students who participate in the program.
The Training All volunteers participate in a 2 1/2 hour training workshop. This workshop provides everything you will need to know to teach the students during their sessions. The workshops are taught by people with past DASH experience including many who wrote the curriculums. During the training, you will experience the same activities as the students. You will receive a comprehensive session curriculum and be able to sample each hands-on activity.
There are always people to assist you in answering any questions you may have.
The Classroom The heart of the DASH program is four on-hour classroom activity sessions. All the sessions are conducted within a two-week time period.
In the classroom, the unit leader and school coordinator facilitate the hands-on activities with the help of the parent volunteers. Each class is divided into four small groups of 5 or 6 children. In these groups, the students develop a realistic understanding of what it is like to live with a disability.
Need More Information? This is a wonderful opportunity to participate with students in a classroom setting.
If you would like to participate in or learn more about this rewarding program, please contact one of the DASH coordinators listed below. Boxford
Keith Quenzel (978) 887-2676
Middleton No Middleton program running currently due to a lack of volunteers. Topsfield
Bev Nelson (978) 887-9845
Janet Sacco (978) 887-3117
Sponsored by the Tri-Town Council on Youth and Family Services, the Tri-Town School Union, the Forest Foundation, and donations from you, the caring community.
|
Quick Links: |
|
Copyright © 2007 Tri-Town Council on Youth and Family
Services
|
