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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1991-06-19-HSC-min.pdf Minutes Human Services Committee 6/ 19/91 Present Renee Cochin, Co-Chairman, and Ann Irving, Human Services Committee; Pam Varrin and Chris Connor, Parents' Advisory Committee/Integrated Recreation Panel ; Steve Baran, Human Services Coordinator (recorder) Chris Connor and Pam Varrin came to acquaint the Human Services Committee representatives with the history of efforts of parents of special needs young people (30-40 members on Parents' Advisory Committee, 12-15 at any one meeting; 6 members of Integrated Recreation Panel ) to obtain recreational services in the Town. Special needs children had, previous to last summer, attended "Kids' Camp", a camp run by the Recreation Department exclusively for special needs children Last summer was the first season for "Camp for All ", an integrated, non-competitive camp that was received very positively by all the campers The Director was a special needs education teacher from the Clarke Middle School ; the ratio was 4 1 Previous to last summer the parents had come to rely on an arrangement whereby the children would spend the entire summer at camp Many of the parents had expected the arrangement would continue Therefore, there was considerable tension when only two-two-week sessions were made available Moreover, there was considerable uncertainty up to the last minutes about what arrangements would be made During the talks with the Recreation Department, the Committee succeeded in altering the language of the Department' s brochure to str ke language referring to "integrated" programs The goal of the Parents' Advisory Committee is to have all recreational programs open, and they were continuing to work to this end with the Recreation Department Also, Children' s Hospital will be providing training to interested communities The Hayden program continues to be segregated, and the Committee is developing strategies to overcome this problem At present, '!. Hayden accommodates well to those speuial needs young people whose problems are not obvious They will accept more disabled I people when they are accompanied by a full -time attendant II Renee and Ann discussed strategies for the parents to follow around getting a policy commitment by the Town greater involvement of the Recreation Committee, the Selectmen, participation n forthcoming diversity training informing the Town through the papers of special need (as was done in relation to the camping experience last summer ISI Pam and Chris said they looked forward to keeping in touch with itthe Human Services Committee VIII -__- --- -_ -