My name is Kathleen Egan and I am pleased to introduce myself as the new Cross-Stream/Inclusion AmeriCorps*VISTA. My term of service began in November and I am very excited and proud to be doing a year of national service at the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC).

I am a graduate of Albion College where I double majored in Interpersonal Communications and Theater. Growing up as a student with a diagnosed Learning Disability and a passionate special education teacher for a mother, I understand the power of inclusion. I'm looking forward to using my background and strengths to contribute to the amazing work of the MCSC and the Statewide Inclusion Team.

My first two months of service have been a whirlwind of activity learning about the MCSC, meeting grantees and partners, and attempting to memorize the countless acronyms in the service field! In December, I had the opportunity to attend the Inclusion Training Institute in Biloxi, Mississippi. I participated in the Level I session, which focused on helping programs incorporate inclusion policies and engage a more diverse range of volunteers. It was great to learn about the commitment the Corporation for National and Community Service has made to inclusion, as well as the plethora of resources available.

If you would like additional information on the topics contained in this newsletter or would like to hear more about the MCSC's disability and inclusion efforts, please don't hesitate to contact me at csvista@michigan.gov or at (517) 335-6585. I would also love to hear if you have suggestions or success stories for the newsletter. I look forward to working with you on this important initiative!

In Service,

Kathleen Egan

Cross-Stream/Inclusion VISTA
 
To see past editions of IN Touch you can access the archived versions by visiting the Resources section of the Disability/Inclusion section of the MCSC website.
 

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Inclusive education is about embracing all, making a commitment to do whatever it takes to provide each student in the community - and each citizen in a democracy - an inalienable right to belong, not to be excluded. Inclusion assumes that living and learning together is a better way that benefits everyone, not just children who are labeled as having a difference.

(Falvey, Givner & Kimm, 1995, p.8)

Reasonable Accommodation Funds:
For cases where a reasonable accommodation would prove to be an undue hardship for a program, limited funding is available through the MCSC to provide accommodations for service applicants, AmeriCorps*State and National Direct members, Senior Corps volunteers, and Learn and Serve program participants.  Programs should seek alternative funding or cost-sharing resources whenever possible. All national service programs must provide reasonable accommodations where required by law regardless of their eligibility for MCSC or outside funding.

Inclusion Mini-Grants:
The MCSC is pleased to offer supplemental inclusion funds for Michigan's AmeriCorps*State and National, Senior Corps (RSVP, Senior Companions, Foster Grandparents), and Learn and Serve programs to engage people with disabilities in service. Funds will be granted through an application process and will support service projects and "service shadow" opportunities that include people with disabilities. Inclusion mini-grant requests may range from $100-$500. Programs will also be required to submit a final report detailing the project/event outcomes. The application is available on the MCSC website at www.michigan.gov/mcsc. 
 

Inclusion Training for National Service Program Participants:

Members of Michigan's Statewide Inclusion Team are available to provide disability/ inclusion training to national service programs at little or no cost. For more information on scheduling a training for your national service program, contact Megan Sargent at sargentm1@michigan.gov or 517-241-3494.
 

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We'd like to thank writer Jeffrey Cunningham for allowing us to share his article that first ran on January 10, 2011 in the Northwest Advance. The original article can be accessed  at: http://www.mlive.com/northwestadvance/index.ssf/2011/01/high_school_turns_to_special_g.html.

High School turns to special group of students to run store

The students were already running the high school's ice cream shop, so it seemed natural to everybody, except Wyman, that they should take on the school store project. "I didn't know anything about running a school store," Wyman said. "And at the time, I wasn't sure my students could take on this project. But I am so proud of what they have done."

Wyman's class opened the store earlier this school year and so far, she said, they have run it like professionals. "I rarely have to step in and handle problems at this point," she said. "Senior Dylan Brinks is the store manager and he has run the store very well, but he had run the ice cream shop for two years so he knew what he was doing and I had confidence in him."

Wyman, who has been teaching for most of the last two decades, said she never really planned on teaching more than 10 years. "I thought I would teach for 10 years and then move on to do research or something else, but now I can't see myself doing anything but working with these students."

That's big praise for the students, many of whom look different than the general population of the school and have struggled to learn over the years.

But when given the task first of running the school's ice cream shop as a business and now the school store, those same students have proven they are more than capable of doing the job, Wyman said.

At first, Wyman said, there were concerns the athletic boosters would feel they were trying to take over the boosters' territory as the boosters sell all sorts of T-shirts and other Sparta High School apparel. "The thing is that we have started to turn the profits from the store back into growing the business and to doing good things for the school and community."

This spring, it will help fund a horticultural garden for her students to manage. Wyman said she doesn't know anything about plants, but volunteers from the community have said they would help if she could fund the project and her students are interested in learning how to plant flowers and other plants and how to take care of them.

The Sparta High School service learning classes have caught the attention of many at the state level over the last few years, including Angelia Salas with the Michigan Community Service Commission.

Salas said what Wyman is doing with her students is amazing. "It is a very remarkable story the way she is preparing her students for the rest of their lives," Salas said. "This is very real-world training. All students need this model, but her students need this more. These are not the types of lessons that you learn out of a book and Wyman has been doing this for years."

Wyman has had several grants from the MCSC to help fund projects for her class. MCSC funds projects statewide with federal funds.

Sparta High School store space had been designed into the building, which opened in fall of 2007, but until recently had not been unused.

Next to the space is the concession stand used by the Sparta Athletic Boosters during home basketball games. Wyman's class uses the space during lunch hours to run their original business - the Sparta High School Ice Cream Shop.

The shop sells several items, including soft-serve ice cream, pop, and slushies. It is run by the students from Wyman's class who are all classified with mild cognizant mental impairments. While her students may have difficulties learning in some areas, Wyman is a stern taskmaster in making sure that those involved in the ice cream shop all learn to do their jobs and do them correctly.

"We had been running the ice cream shop for years in the old high school so we have this program pretty well established," she said. There is a shop manager, three shift managers, and many other clearly defined jobs descriptions, which students apply for and are hired to fill.

The shop makes real money and her students are expected to account for every penny that come and goes through the cash register.

Sophomore Zach Welch is one of the Ice Cream Shop managers. He has worked his way up from the lowest job in the shop to now managing. "The hardest part now is when someone makes a mistake, I have to fix it," Welch said. "It's easy fixing the ice cream machines, but fixing problems with employees is harder."

Wyman said that Zach has proven over the last two years he has learned how to solve personnel problems that arise almost daily in the shop. "He has figured out when to handle things by himself and when he needs to come for the big boss," she said.

"That is the most powerful part of this whole thing is seeing these students learn things that no one else would give them a chance to learn."

Dylan Brinks said the difference between running the Ice Cream Shop as he had done the last couple of years and now running Sparty's Store is that a lot more money changes hands. "I was glad they picked me to manage the store," he said. "I do like to see students wearing stuff they bought from the store. It is kind of cool."

Dylan said he is already concerned about what will happen next year when he graduates and someone else takes over the store, but knows that, like with the ice cream shop, he trained someone to take over there and he has already been working with his staff to take over the store when he graduates.

Wyman said that has been a joy for her, too, over the last few years - to see one set of older students training younger students how to work hard to do their jobs. "By the time the older kids are seniors they can start stepping back and have the younger students taking on more of the leadership roles. I am proud of that."