The Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education announces inclusive programming opportunities for schools for the 2019-2020 school year.  Mikayla’s Voice offers three types of inclusion programs.  Free programs are available for schools and will be awarded on a first come, first serve basis.

Inclusion Assemblies:

Mikayla’s Voice Inclusion Assemblies introduce valuable dialogue for schools and demonstrate children’s capacity for understanding, acceptance and compassion.  Led by a child or young adult with a disability and their parent, these one-hour assemblies begin by sharing the book Our Friend Mikayla (written and illustrated by Mikayla’s former third-grade class) to provide background knowledge regarding what it is like to have a disability.  Two assemblies are typically held at each school to limit the size and age range of the audience and increase student participation.  Assemblies are always age and developmentally appropriate, based on audience questions and interest, and specifically tailored to those in attendance.  Each assembly concludes with an invitation for all students to serve as Mikayla’s “Voice” at their school.

Wheels of Friendship®:

In this unique program developed and coordinated by Mikayla’s Voice, children paint not with brushes, but with the wheels of a wheelchair (or walker) and the paws (and tail) of a service dog.  Having started with a focus on the inclusion of people with physical disabilities, the program has expanded in creative ways to represent additional disabilities such as blindness, visual impairment, deafness, and hearing impairment. Working with an inclusive class over four one-hour sessions, the first session is used to brainstorm, and the final three are utilized for art production.  The finished paintings are unveiled at school-wide presentations and remain on permanent display in the schools where they were created.

Book Donation:

Two books each ~ Our Friend Mikayla, High Fives and A Big Heart, and Super Brady: Always on the Move!

Participating schools are asked to help with pre and post data collections to measure the global quality of the programs and their ability to improve school culture.  Mikayla’s Voice has partnered with researchers at Lehigh University to design develop plans for improvement and replication. 

Interested schools can contact Rita Cheskiewicz, Executive Director at 570-690-7113 or rita@mikaylasvoice.org or Kimberly Resh, Program Director, at 610-746-2324 or kim@mikaylasvoice.org to participate in Mikayla’s Voice programming.  Mikayla’s Voice website can be found at www.mikaylasvoice.org.