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News about Rehab Therapy Foundation
Grant Recipients
THE ENOLA GROUP - To provide interactive software in an effort to provide state of the art services for underserved children with disabilities. Due to changes in hardware support various software platforms over the years need upgrading that will interface with new technologies and hardware platforms. The software will address specific needs in the area of language and literacy development, social skills, math and science. The software will be used during the assessment process, for training families and service providers as well as being available for loan. UNC HOSPITALS - To sponsor an eight-day camp program for 20 children with hemiplegia. Each child will receive constraint induced movement therapy, an effective therapeutic intervention for children with this disability. The daily schedule will be modeled after a typical camp day experience. Each camp day will provide opportunities for the children to participate in music, arts and crafts, board and video, story time and a variety of group and individual activities.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA HOSPITALS OT/PT DEPT. – To provide for a one-week camp program for children with hemiplegia. Each child will receive constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT), which is an effective therapeutic intervention for children with this disability. The children from throughout North Carolina will participate in music, arts and crafts, games, story time and various group and individual activities. PARTNERS IN LEARNING CDC – To provide digital cameras for classroom teachers to record, interpret and document children’s development and success in reaching IEP and IFSP goals. EASTER SEALS UCP OF NORTH CAROLINA – To provide for the purchase of therapy equipment and assistive technology for children with disabilities in two centers to support their therapy goals and full participation in learning activities.
MAGNOLIA FARMS THERAPEUTIC RIDING CENTER – To provide safety and adaptive riding equipment, rental for a portable handicap accessible toilet and scholarships for ten additional low income and disabled children. Magnolia Farms will now be able to increase its help to families of disabled children by offering a meaningful and constructive activity to an often-overlooked population. PARTNERS IN LEARNING CDC – To provided much needed equipment to be used by the classroom teachers and therapist to enhance the children’s ability to achieve their IEP and IFSP goals. THE RIDDLE INSTITUTE – To establish an extensive equipment loan resource for families and therapist who provide services to children with varying degrees of vision impairments and developmental disabilities in twelve predominantly rural counties in western North Carolina.
After Gateway - A day health program that serves mentally and physically disabled adults. The programs target areas include, exercise with emphasis on range of motion; weekly outings and age appropriate games and activities. Magnolia Farms Therapeutic Riding Center - A program providing therapeutic riding scholarships and safety equipment for low income and disabled children. O'Berry Center Foundation - To expand current family support project to help improve the lives of more children and their families affected by developmental disabilities. The Riddle Institute - A computer evaluation project to develop a resource for providing computer access evaluations to children with developmental disabilities living within the catchment area of the Center for Early Communication and Learning.
Arc of Orange County – Teens in Transition Project Partners in Learning Child Development and Family Resource Center – Inclusion materials needed to meet the needs of the children throughout the county Industrial Opportunities – Vocational Enrichment Summer Program LifeSpan, Inc. – Sensory equipment to help children with special needs fully participate in the learning and development process Community Music School – Piano instruction to children with developmental disabilities New Hanover Regional Medical Center, Coastal Rehabilitation Hospital – LEAP Program The Riddle Institute - Production of 25 multilingual language kits for families living in economically distressed counties
The
Arc of Rowan County - Summer Day Program The ARC/Rowan has operated a Summer Day Program every year since 1987. Licensed by the Rowan County Department of Social Services, it is a cooperative effort with the Rowan-Salisbury Schools to serve children with special needs, ages 3 to 21 years of age. Goals of program include increasing, or at least maintaining, the skills the children have learned through the educational year. The school system provides one certified teacher, consultative services, daily transportation, and a local school to house the program, including utilities. This project will provide for the purchase of new beanbags and mats for 70 children who will attend the Summer Day Program. The Arc of Rowan is a non-profit local organization affiliated with the state and national Arcs. Their mission is to improve the quality of life for children and adults with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities. Their 20 member board of directors meets monthly and is comprised of self-advocates, family members, professionals in the field, and interested citizens. Their work can be categorized in three major areas: public awareness, advocacy, and direct services. High
Hope of Hickory, Inc. - Upgrade Equipment Although High Hope has a variety of specialized equipment, most is very worn and past it's prime. They often find themselves in the position of personally fixing, or rigging, broken equipment due to the lack of funds to purchased new equipment. This project will provide for the replacement of some of their specialized equipment. High Hope is a developmental child care center located in Hickory, NC. They provide early intervention services to special needs children from 0 - 5 years. These services include, but are not limited to, physical, speech, and occupational therapies. They work with the Gov. Morehead Program for the visually challenged children and with the nutritionist with the Developmental Evaluation Center. Hoke
County Association for the Developmentally Disabled, Inc. - Computer Learning
System This project will provide the Children's Developmental
Center The Hoke County Children's Developmental Center is a private non-profit organization that has served preschool multi-handicapped and medically fragile children since its incorporation in 1974. They provide developmentally educational services, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech/language therapy, meals and transportation. Volunteer Families for Children (VFC) of North Carolina - Respite This project will allow VFC to increase services to disabled and special need children and their families. Placements are limited by the availability of host families trained to provide care to special needs and disabled children. Additional training materials and recruitment of volunteers will increase the available pool of families who can provide respite to children with development disabilities. The number of parental self-referrals is also on the rise and although they have a sliding payment scale for self-referrals, 95% of families who need help fall below the poverty line. Lack of money is not barrier to receiving services. VFC is seeking support to provide short-term planned and emergency respite services to children with developmental disabilities who are self-referred. VFC provides sage, short-term emergency and planned respite care to children and youth through a network of licensed host families in seven counties in North Carolina. VFC began in 1989 with a three-year grant to replicate the nationally acclaimed Virginia program, Volunteer Emergency Families for Children. last fiscal year, VFC helped 250 children, ranging in age from birth to 17 years old, with short-term respite care for 2,250 days of service. Many of families required respite due to stresses associated with caring for children with emotional or developmental disabilities and most had no other resources, financial or otherwise, to assist them. As a state-licensed child-placing agency, VFC recruits, trains and licenses host families, who, in turn, care for the children they place. Host families are licensed through VFC by the NC Department of Social Services as mandated by the state and must meet strict licensure requirements. VFC's services last up to 30 days, with the average length of stay being three days. All of the children served are from families where VFC intervention supports the parents or guardian. Parents are able to seek help; counseling and other assistance while their children are kept in a safe, nurturing home. WakeMed - Infant Developmental Specialist Training Infant Developmental Specialist Training is a technical assistance program for North Carolina Child Service Coordinators and Early Intervention Staff to provide information and practical experience to build their skills and competencies in serving families with preterm and medically fragile infants who are eligible for early intervention. The challenges that parents face in caring for a premature or medically fragile infant are irritability, disrupted wake/sleep cycles, difficulty transitioning from one environment to another, feeding problems and poor social interaction. This technical assistance program will provide a theoretical framework to understand neurobehavioral development; assist in developing outcomes for Individualized Family Service Plan for the specialized population, and develop activities to achieve the outcomes. As a result of this project, approximately 2000 families will be impacted each year. WakeMed is a health care system. The faculty for this project are part of the Developmental Team at WakeMed serving the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Developmental Follow-Up Clinic and WakeMed's Hospital-Home Early Intervention Program (HHIP). All faculty members are experts in working with preterm and medically fragile infants and their families. HHIP serves families of infants in WakeMed's NICU that are eligible for early intervention. Families enrolled in HHIP partner with an enfant developmental specialist throughout their baby's hospital stay and continue for approximately 4 - 5 months after the baby goes home.
United
Cerebral Palsy of NC (Sanford) This project will provide therapeutic equipment for
children with special needs served at Stepping Stones Learning Center to more
fully include the children in their classrooms, home, and community
environments. UCP of NC provides support to persons with disabilities and
their families through developmental day centers, supported employment, and
residential programs. To provide changing tables or similar equipment for
classrooms serving students with multiple disabilities that require diaper
changing during the day. The Arc of Alamance County works toward the development of
programs and services for individuals with mental retardation or other related
developmental disabilities, advise and aid parents, and serve as a resource for
information. The Arc also strives for better public understanding of the issues
surrounding mental retardation and cooperates with other agencies in advocating
for and promoting the welfare of the individuals we serve. OPC
Area Program (Early Intervention & Family Service of Person County) Project to obtain and use equipment that will provide
adequate Vestibular input for the children served by our center. OPC Area Program is a state funded entity that provides
services to adults and children with developmental disabilities. One of their
many organizations is Early Intervention and Family Services of Person County (EIFS/PC).
EIFS/PC provides developmental day services, physical therapy, occupational
therapy, and speech therapy to children birth to 5 years of age. The children 2
– 5 attend the center daily and children 0 – 2 are served in the home 1 –
2x per week. Generations
– Tadpole AT Lending Library Generations-Tadpole would like to add 35 literacy kits to
the inventory. We would like to include Bilingual Kits in the inventory to
address the growing needs of the children with developmental disabilities who
speak Spanish or English as a second language. Generations-Tadpole lends and delivers low-tech assistive technology devices free to consumers, families, and professionals across North Carolina. Anyone working with an individual with a developmental disability is eligible to borrow and receive free shipping. We have approximately 3,500 items for loan in the inventory. We are a preview center for Laureate Software, Applied Human Factors Software and Marblesoft. As a preview center, families are allowed to come in and try the software before they purchase it.
New
Hanover County Schools Strengthening Exercise Programs for Children with Cerebral Palsy – Funding is being sought for exercise equipment to be used in strengthening muscles in the children with cerebral palsy. By gaining muscle strength, the children’s motor abilities should improve. It is hoped that they will then be able to keep up better with non-physically challenged peers in PE classes and in outside community recreational activities. Madison
County Schools Mobilifts - Madison County School system is in great need of two Mobilifts to help our wheelchair and walker students to have more ease of access to areas such as stages, playgrounds with incline and elevated bleachers. Randolph
County Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities Full time Spanish Interpreter for Early Childhood Intervention Services – Funding is being requested to provide supplemental funding to our current budget allotment for interpreter services to hire a full time Spanish interpreter. Currently, Spanish speaking children and their families make up approximately 20% of total caseload of 125 clients. This includes those clients needing screening for services. A full-time Spanish interpreter would increase therapy services from the current monthly to a weekly contact; increase the amount of child service coordination support offered to Spanish speaking families during visits to medical specialists and community resources; and would insure that screening and assignment of therapy services occur at the same frequency as English speaking families. The funding is requested for on fiscal year to allow the organization to immediately increase services to Hispanic families. This would, in turn, allow a gradual increase in revenues realized from third parties over the course of the ensuring year. By the end of the year, increased revenues should be sufficient to support a full-time position without outside assistance. The grant would allow the organization the opportunity to determine whether this position could attain self-supporting status. Transylvania
County Child Development Look Who’s Talking Now - The children in our inclusive childcare programs will have enhanced communication opportunities with the addition of augmentative communication computer software to our teaching resources. Teacher / therapist created games and communication boards will allow children of many different developmental levels to engage in quality learning experiences in our classrooms by increasing mastery of language, peer interaction, and social / emotional development. More efficient addressing educational and therapeutic needs of more local children with disabilities – The two core staff members, an early childhood special educator and a physical therapist currently work six day a week. The program now carries a waiting list. Although there are volunteers on call to assist, the two core staff are primarily responsible for implementing both the professional services and the non-skilled labor required to keep Equus Heals a well respected community asset. The hiring of two part time program assistants to manage some of the support services would free up the intervention professionals to focus on providing direct services for more children, families and centers, and to increase the scope of community services offered.
Many children with disabilities in the greater
Greensboro area have neither access to nor financial means to participate in a
water safety or swim class. A newly planned project at the YWCA, "Swim
with a Friend", seeks to extend our expertise in teaching children to
swim (and enjoying water-based activities) to include children with
disabilities. In order to facilitate this project in an inclusive, small class
setting, we have designed the program based on a "buddy system".
Encouraging a child with developmental disability to learn to swim with a friend
(who may not have similar disabilities) will improve confidence, encouragement,
understanding, and skills for everyone involved. Beyond adding water safety and
basic swimming skills, the additional benefits of the YWCA's project in warm
water (86-88 degrees) may include increased muscle strength, endurance, and
coordination with a decrease in associated stiffness/pain. A third but primary
purpose of the project is to increase the capacity of the local community to
care for and educate children with special needs. United Cerebral Palsy of NC, Inc. in Wilmington The purpose of this project is to provide a complete system of powered mobility to enable professionals and families to evaluate the potential of young children with various degrees of disabilities to become independently mobile. Having this chair with carious access devices readily available at our center will enable both parents and professionals to determine which form of operation best suits the needs of specific children. Additionally, since the cost of a power chair is considerable, funding sources expect a child to demonstrate purposeful use of the chair before funding is approved. This is very difficult to demonstrate successfully without a chair to use for evaluation.
National Black Child Development Institute, Inc. The Assistive Technology for Infants and Preschoolers Project (ATIPP) provides free speech, language and hearing services to culturally and linguistically diverse and typically under-served families who could benefit from assistive technology. This request for funding will enable us to meet the needs of under-served families, by continuing support for ATIPP and expanding our services to include:
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