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Common Playgrounds
"Common
Playgrounds" is a disability
sensitivity education program for schools and after school programs. Kids meet
and learn from people with various disabilities in a fun, informative, and
interactive skit program and then create posters that depict ways in which
persons with all types of abilities can “hang out and be friends.”
What is
the Common Playgrounds Program?
Common Playgrounds is a three-step program that aims to:
Reduce
stereotypes about the abilities of children with disabilities.
Increase
inclusiveness and communication between children with and without disabilities.
Encourage
middle school-aged children to share their imaginations by developing unique and
safe ways of including children with disabilities in playing games,
participating at recess, playing sports and having full access to fun and
friendship.
Program Components
Assembly
Program: What Do You Know About People with Disabilities? –This
fun, informative and interactive assembly program, based on various popular TV
game shows, covers the gamut of what people with disabilities are capable of
achieving. It ends with members of the LVCIL Freewheelers Athletic Club playing
(and usually defeating) adult supervisors in a game of wheelchair basketball.
LVCIL staff and volunteers make up a “panel of experts” representing varying
disability groups. The assembly can work for a group of 50 to 500
participants–the more, the merrier!
Question/Answer
Discussion–Panel members allow participants to get "up close and
personal” and to ask questions of any nature regarding living with a
disability. This segment can be presented to a large group or in smaller
classroom settings.
Poster/Essay
Contest–Utilizing what the children have learned and experienced, and
using a main theme developed by LVCIL, participants depict through drawings or
essays ways in which people with disabilities can be included in all areas of
recreation, physical fitness and having fun.
Participants’ work is judged and awarded by LVCIL volunteers. This
segment can be done as individuals or in small groups.
Winning
participants will receive one of the following (depending on scheduling and
availability of funding)
Independent
Living Month: Students are invited to attend LVCIL’s annual Independent
Living Month luncheon in July. The program includes a featured speaker who
addresses issues pertaining to persons with disabilities. Winning posters and
essays are prominently displayed and contest winners are presented with their
awards.
“Winners
Circle” Pizza Party: LVCIL will host a pizza party for contest winners
either at the school or at the LVCIL offices.
How
To Get the Common Playgrounds Program in Your School
If you are interested in additional information or to
schedule a Common Playgrounds Program Performance, please contact the Common
Playgrounds Coordinator, Sally Hill, at (610) 770-9781 ext. 28.
Sally will set up a time with your educational facility to
provide an access survey of your building or program location (to ensure it is
accessible for our program volunteers). She will also meet with faculty/staff
regarding participation in the program. In addition, she will schedule dates for
performances including any inclement weather dates.
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