The Bernards PEC's latest project is a mentoring program. Mentors ages 8 and up are going to be trained to work with children with disabilities. The mentors will either work one-on-one as big brothers and sisters, in group settings during recreational programs, and/or life skills and community activities.

Our first group of mentors is being trained on February 24th from 10 am to 12 pm.  Melinda Jennis of Pathways for Exceptional Children has generously offered to lead the training seminar at the Bernards Township Library.  Melinda is a physical therapist who works with the pediatric population.  The workshop will provide information on various diagnoses and how to be a friend to and assist children with special needs.  So far, she has trained more than 1,500 mentors statewide.

Children ages eight and up who would be interested in being mentors are invited to fill out the volunteer form printed inside and send it to us.

Once our first group of volunteers have been trained we are going to assign big brothers and big sisters.  If you would like your child to have a big brother or big sister, please fill out the form inside.  A mentor will go to your home for a play date, to be a mother's helper, or to be a homework buddy. One of the parents must always be on site to supervise and train the mentors.   A mentor could also act as a shadow so that your child could participate in a recreational or community event.

We hope that this program will give our children much needed opportunities to interact with typical peers, work on their play skills, develop friendships, and become more integrated into our community.  These interactions are important because it is during interaction with peers that children pick up the social clues and skills that make ordinary living possible.   Some of our children need to learn how to make friends, fool around, hang out, say cool things, or whatever it is that allows young people to interact successfully.

Most of us have at least some awful memories from childhood of being rejected, not belonging and not fitting in.  A sense of belonging is necessary for the development of self-esteem and self-confidence.  Often schools are unable to provide this kind of nurturance and assistance even though school is where most socialization takes place. 

Peer buddy programs - in which general education students interact with and support special education students - are an effective strategy for increasing inclusion and access to the general education curriculum.  Our mentoring program is a step in the right direction, but in order to be truly effective we will need to work with teachers, administrators, guidance counselors and students to develop a program that will allow general and special education students to interact regularly with each other.  Studies have shown that peer buddy program connect general and special education students, expand students' time spent in general education activities, promote the citizenship of all students, and help build a caring school community.

Our hope is that in the future we will be able to extend this program into the school system.  If anyone is interested in this topic, please read Success For All Students: Promoting Inclusion in Secondary Schools through Peer Buddy Programs by Carolyn Hughes and Erik W. Carter.

In addition to providing community service opportunities for our volunteers, the mentyoring program will raise their awareness of the challenges children with disabilities and their families face.  As they work with our children, our volunteers will learn to be more welcoming, accepting, tolerant, and accommodating to individual differences and needs.   When students help others, they come to care about them and have an interest in their well-being.  Getting to know students with disabilities will change the way they think about people with disabilities and give them the ability to put themselves in others' shoes.

Unfortunately adults with disabilities continue to lag far behind graduates without disabilities in the areas of employment, postsecondary education, community participation, and quality of life.  Some of our volunteers will be tomorrow's leaders.  They will make decisions about who will work in various corporations and businesses.  These students will be more likely to take a chance on hiring individuals with disabilities, based on their relationships with their little sisters and little brothers.  They may decide to pursue careers in special education.

This mentoring program is an initial but important step in our effort to develop programs of peer support to encourage interaction and promote positive relationships between students with disabilities and their peers.

If you have any questions or would like to help me with this project please call me at (908) 766-9421 or e-mail amygrot@optonline.net.

Volunteer Flyer

Mentoring Flyer