OHSU Announces Grant Recipients (OR UCEDD)
February 25, 2015
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The Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) is pleased to announce the latest recipients of the OHSU UCEDD Community Engagement Grant Program. The OHSU UCEDD, in collaboration with their advisory board, the Community Partners Council, is committed to activating organizations across the State to engage people with disabilities in their communities. To further these goals, the CPC annually solicits applications to fund projects with this focus.
This year, seven agencies applied for the $1000 maximum grant awards. In 2014, the CPC specifically supported community projects to engage people of all abilities in the specific areas of Spirituality & Disability and Sibling Support & Disability. The OHSU UCEDD would like to thank all applicants for their interest and encourage interested applicants to check our web site for future open funding cycles
www.ohsu.edu/engagementgrant
Congratulations to the following recipients:
Congregation Neveh Shalom
Portland, OR, is awarded $940
Project: Social & Educational Inclusion Training for Professionals and Parents
Project Description: Congregation Neveh Shalom is a diverse synagogue comprised of 850 family units, reaching approximately 2500 individuals with more than 150 students enrolled in their Kindergarten-6th grade education program.
This grant award will be used to facilitate a two-hour training for staff to create and implement Individual Education Plans for students with special needs by working with an expert in special education who also understands the goals and context of the Neveh Shalom learning program. One of the missions of this program includes learning to read Hebrew as a second language.
A major spiritual milestone for their families is the bar or bat mitzvah, celebrated at age 13 with the child leading the prayer service, in Hebrew, in front of the community, including reading from the Torah. Their goal is for every student, regardless of ability, to participate meaningfully in this important rite of passage. Additionally, a two-hour training for all of the families in our K-6 community to give practical ideas of how typical children can be most sensitive to the social needs of our children with special needs.
This program will allow teachers to gauge and implement the learning goals that these students need in order to achieve to their highest potential.
Family and Community Together (FACT)
Clackamas, OR is awarded $1000
Project: Inclusive Communities Access Project - Communities of Faith
Project Description: Family and Community Together (FACT) is a family leadership organization for individuals and their families experiencing disability that works to create positive changes in policies, systems, and attitudes that impact people experiencing disability. FACT believes that it is entirely possible to change perceptions and support families of children experiencing disabilities to be active, engaged participants in their communities of faith.
This funding will allow FACT to target communities of faith throughout the state of Oregon developing the communities of faith component of its Inclusive Communities Access Project (ICAP). ICAP will successfully develop, and implement technical assistance to families and communities of faith by demonstrating increased access, greater levels of participation, and increased inclusion and disability awareness in communities of faith. This pilot program includes working directly with communities of faith to identify families in which to provide support and will conduct four large group presentations Families and community partners will receive education and training on the barriers faced by individuals experiencing disability, and how to remove them.
The outcomes will include curriculum development and implementation and sustainable services focusing on inclusion to families and communities of faith.
Families for Community
Eagle Point, OR, is awarded $1000
Project: Sibshops of the Rogue Valley
Project Description:
Families for Community exists to cultivate community among families who have children that experience disability of all kinds, through relationships and support opportunities. Their goal is to empower parents as advocate and connect them with others who are walking similar paths.
The funding will provide support for Sibshops in the Rogue Valley to support children ages 8-12 years. They will plan Sibshop event days for siblings who have siblings with disability to create autonomy and learning of disability fashioned into fun, physical and non-physical activities. Sibshops will help both parents and their children by providing the chance to connect with others experiencing similar life circumstances. Sibshops will not only create autonomy for the sibling with the disability but for the child who does not experience disability through activities and socialization.
The primary long term goal of Sibshops in the Rogue Valley is to create the opportunity for children who have siblings with disability to create an identity separate of their sibling, in a positive and meaningful way.
Oregon Technical Assistance Corporation (OTAC)
Salem, Or., is awarded $1000
Project: Empowering Siblings Through Person-Centered Practices
Project Description: Oregon Technical Assistance Corporation (OTAC) provides training and technical assistance to promote full participation in community life for people with disabilities, seniors and their families. They use person-centered strategies that emphasize opportunities, self-determination and inclusion. OTAC will use this funding to develop person-centered approaches identifying the support needs and highlight the strengths of children/teens that have a sibling that experiences a disability. A facilitator will lead a one-day, 2 1/2 hour workshop for up to ten families. Families will be guided through a facilitated process to create an individualized one-page person-centered profile for the focus individual (sibling). Each focus individual will leave with a completed one-page profile.
The goal is to utilize person-centered approaches to identify the support needs and highlight the strengths of children/teens who have a sibling that experiences a disability by introducing a new support model for siblings that can be sustained by families, family networks, person-centered facilitators and incorporated into Sibshops throughout Oregon.
