Staff have been connecting with and supporting clients using technology and creative methods during COVID-19, to ensures that everyone has access to our services.
ISAIAS GOES “ZOOM!”
You may remember Isaias, a student from our Special Education School who we featured in this newsletter less than a year ago. He
was thriving in school and his family was so grateful for his Wayfinder teachers and therapists. Thanks to Zoom sessions, Isaias continues to learn and laugh at home! Kencie, Rachel and Claudia, his occupational therapist, teacher and teacher’s aide, recently connected with Isaias and his family, checking on his motor skills, helping his mother read him a book and discussing his overall progress. Thanks to our dedicated staff, the families from our Special Education School are still receiving the individual support they need to thrive!
MUSICAL MOMENTS
Tom and his fellow therapists from our Mental Health Services program have developed innovative ways to engage their clients via telehealth. It can be challenging to build rapport over online and phone sessions but the team has gotten creative. Tom recently discovered that a father and daughter he was working with share Tom’s love of a famous American rock band. This was a transformative moment and a key to the healing process for the family, who had recently reunited after the daughter was returned to her father’s custody. Tom began incorporating music into their therapy sessions. Tom plays his guitar, alongside father and daughter, while they sing their favorite songs during the therapy session—all on Zoom!
SPECIAL DELIVERY
The adults in the Davidson Program for Independence are learning important skills thanks to staff like Kellie. Wayfinder’s lead braille instructor, along with her guide dog, travel to our main office so that she can create her lesson materials. She mails her students braille embossed homework packets, curriculum units, and braille writing paper so that they can continue learning at home. Instructors are also giving lessons and encouragement to students with vision impairment over the phone. The COVID-19 crisis has had a unique impact on people with disabilities and we are proud to continue our services remotely across the state for youth and adults who are blind or visually impaired.
DID YOU KNOW? Wayfinder is an essential business that has remained open during the COVID-19 crisis. If you are able, please give a gift today to support the most vulnerable.
June 23, 2020