UIndy students gain experience in their major volunteering to help those with special needs
Easter Seals Crossroads is a service for adults and children with special needs. The organization has three Indianapolis locations, but can be found across the United States. The University of Indianapolis has partnered with Easter Seals to give students the opportunity to volunteer and gain experience helping those with disabilities or special needs.
UIndy’s motto of “Education for Service” is put into action through this partnership with Easter Seals Crossroads which provides a variety of programs for those with special needs.
Not only does the organization provide “physical, occupational and speech-language therapies, but the staff also provides services such as driver evaluation and training, a cerebral palsy clinic and home modification consultants,” according to the Web site at www.crossroads.easterseals.com. Senior physical therapy assistant major Andrea Braun said the program assists those with both low and high functioning disabilities.
“It’s even just a place for someone with a disability to go during the day to get out of the house,” Braun said.
According to the Web site, “Easter Seals Crossroads is a community resource working in partnership with children and adults with disabilities or special needs and their families to promote growth, independence and dignity.”
University of Indianapolis sociology students Braun and Calley Cook, a sophomore exercise science and pre-physical therapy major, were given the opportunity to volunteer at Easter Seals Crossroads this semester. They attended from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. a couple of days a week and spent a total of 28 hours there for the semester.
Braun and Cook both participated in Easter Seals Crossroads events, Adult Day and Parent’s Night Out. For Adult Day, if one has a family member with a disability, he or she can be dropped off at Easter Seals Crossroads while his or her family works or shops.
“They [Easter Seals] have a staff of people who have worked with all of these types of disabilities before. So if something happens, there are people there to respond and know what to do,” Cook said.
Parents Night Out lets children with disabilities and their siblings be dropped off at Easter Seals from 6-10 p.m. to give their parents time to themselves.
“If I had a child with a disability, I don’t know about you, but I’d be worried about who was taking care of my child [if it wasn’t Easter Seals] and if they had the capabilities to do so,” Cook said. “I wouldn’t trust just anyone.”
Braun remembered doing puzzles with a man for Adult Day. She said she didn’t think he would remember who she was, but the next day when she showed up, he immediately got a puzzle and told her to sit down to do it with him.
“This has expanded my horizons in what I could see in my field,” Braun said. “It has really prepared me for working with patients with different kinds of disabilities.”
Cook recalled a time when she and Braun worked with higher-functioning adults who had a greater ability to learn. They took groups aside to teach them about nutrition and showed the adults what the food groups were by demonstrating with plastic fruit and asking them if a certain food is healthy or not.
“[Working with Easter Seals] has made me a lot more comfortable working with people with disabilities,” Cook said.
Cook and Braun stressed the importance of being comfortable with different kinds of disabilities. Because of their interest in physical therapy, they were able to apply the skills they’ve learned in class, to working with disabled patients.
