Loughborough Student Looks At Developmental Disabilities For Project.

Jeff Green | May 02, 2013

The Grade 7 Challenge Program class at Loughborough Public School (LPS) took on an assignment this winter that called for the students to look to the local community.

The sustainability and social justice project they undertook culminated in a presentation to the other students at LPS in a kind of Social Services/Sustainability Fair at the school.

One of the students, Cole Edwards, looked at what happens to developmentally disabled youth after high school, and he prepared a video based on some visits he made to the New Leaf Link program, which is located in the basement of the Sydenham Anglican Church, only a block or so away from his school.

Cole knew about New Leaf Link and the School to Community Program at Sydenham High School because his mother, Nicola, works as a teaching assistant at SHS, and also provides respite care at the Edwards home for a disabled youth.

Cole's aunt and uncle work in the same field in Kingston, so Cole does not have any issues interacting with developmentally disabled people.

“I was very comfortable at New Leaf Link. And I really think they are doing a great job of working with people. The lack of service after the end of high school is a real problem for them. In the video I could not come up with solutions. I don’t think it is something I can really solve; what I was trying to do was make people aware of the topic and see if they will help out New Leaf Link or donate to them,” Cole said.

“The thing that impressed me most was the way Cole handled himself when he came to our programs. He was very professional, very respectful. To be that way at such a young age was really something to see,” said Karin Steiner of New Leaf Link (NELL).

Cole Edwards spent three days at NELL, including one day during the March break.

Steiner was also impressed by Cole's understanding of what is both a social justice and a bureaucratic problem that families with developmentally disabled young adults face.

While enrolled in the public school system, there are educational programs and services available throughout the School to Community classes in local schools, but after that there is a service vacuum, which leaves it up to already stretched families to come up with supports and programming for disabled young adults.

The problem is particularly acute in South Frontenac, because the Community Living Agencies that can step forward to provide support are not very active in South Frontenac. Community-Living North Frontenac is limited in scope to the very edges of the South Frontenac boundary, and it is often difficult for rural families to access the services provided by Community-Living Kingston, which is more focused on the Greater Kingston area.

In order to foster more awareness locally in Sydenham, Cole Edwards invited some of the NELL young adults to Loughborough for a viewing of the video he made about them.

“I could tell that some of the students were uncomfortable; you could tell they were tense - it’s a bit of the unknown for them. They did not know how to respond at times.”

The entire experience was positive for Cole Edwards, including the opportunity to make use of a video camera that he inherited from his grandfather.

“I look forward to doing more video work, and to volunteering at New Leaf Link” he said.