Re: Re:Faith inclusion and employment

[Guest guest]

Yes, Ellen. But congregations are mostly run by volunteers, especially in

children's classrooms.

When nearly everyone is a volunteer, and where even the pros have little or no

background with disabilities, inclusion sometimes ends up looking like it's Mom

and Dad's job to see how their kid will fit in. Especially when the disabled

family member is no longer a child.

At least in education, it's not too hard to convince people a 1-on-1 is needed,

and if people agree one is needed, you don't need to get volunteers.

-Gail

________________________________

From: ELLEN BRONFELD <egskb@...>

IPADDUnite

Sent: Thu, October 21, 2010 9:09:12 AM

Subject: Re:Faith inclusion and employment

" Kids with disabilities get the important part of God's love without any

difficulty at all, " DeHoff said. " It makes you wonder who really has the

disability. "

I loved this, Laurie...

It occurs to me that our faith based groups often try to do what they think is

the right thing to do by designing " special programs " ....it is what we see

everywhere in education as well, as opposed to simply being inclusive and

welcoming...

Ellen

Ellen Garber Bronfeld

egskb@...

[Guest guest]

This is a good example of parents finding the solution. But it still bugs me.

Parents of typical kids don't have to do this, and if their church expected it

of them, they'd be irritated.

I think things will change for the better when the parents of typical kids are

more inclusion minded. These are the folks who are volunteering to teach the

classes, and they are good candidates for 1-on-1 volunteers.

Neal had 1-on-1 aides at church for several years in his childhood. They were

all volunteer, nearly all guys, and the first batch was recruited by the

assistant pastor, who told me that he just went after guys in the congregation

who weren't volunteering for anything else.

I gave them a half hour orientation talk, and they were an amazingly good

bunch. They were on rotation for the worship hour, and we had a volunteer to

work the Sunday school hour every week.

A few years later, we'd lost a few guys to out-of-town moves, and needed to add

some volunteers. The volunteer Sunday school director asked me to line some

people up. I called our every week Sunday school aide and said, " It is not

appropriate for me to recruit Neal's aides, and it's uncomfortable. Other

parents don't have to ask others to volunteer so their kids can be in church. I

don't think anyone will feel free to ask me questions, but they'll just say no.

Could you do this? " He understood my point, and he recruited more volunteers.

-Gail

________________________________

From: teteme55 <teteme@...>

IPADDUnite

Sent: Thu, October 21, 2010 11:00:42 AM

Subject: Re:Faith inclusion and employment

I had a fairly " big " church job when was about five--my other kids were

two and a half and six months. They had Sunday School before the services and a

nursery for during--the kids went from Sunday School to the Service, listened to

the children's sermon and then left to go with the nursery attendant.

All of that was fine but what to do with Russ and Charlie, one of my choir

member's sons who had Downs Syndrome, since there wasn't a class for them?

I volunteered to teach the special ed Sunday School class and my singer sat with

them during the service until they left (and I made sure we didn't sing anything

I needed her for until after they left). So we did exactly what Gail is

suggesting we did---made up something for our kids so they 'fit'.

I only occasionally brought Russ to services at my last big church job, though

he often would come when I had to work in my office. He would help the Sexton

straighten up the pews and got paid a nickel a pew. Ironically, I had another

choir member with a son with Downs Syndrome but this time, he was an adult who

didn't like the preacher (he has a right to have opinions, doesn't he? And

would tell anyone what he thought!)and she couldn't get him to come!

Sounds pretty normal for a 35 year old to tell that to his Mom.

Marie

>

> Yes, Ellen. But congregations are mostly run by volunteers, especially in

> children's classrooms.

>

> When nearly everyone is a volunteer, and where even the pros have little or no

> background with disabilities, inclusion sometimes ends up looking like it's

Mom

>

> and Dad's job to see how their kid will fit in. Especially when the disabled

> family member is no longer a child.

>

> At least in education, it's not too hard to convince people a 1-on-1 is

needed,

>

> and if people agree one is needed, you don't need to get volunteers.

>

> -Gail

>

>

>

>

> ________________________________

>