The Wisconsin Responding to Emergencies and Disasters with Youth (READY) Camp initiative equips youth with skills to prevent injuries, identify vulnerable situations, build leadership, and respond to emergencies and disasters until additional help arrives. Through activity based learning and challenges, students ages 13 to 18 build confidence and add training and certifications that make them leaders when they return to their schools and communities. READY Camp, which is held annually, includes teens with cognitive, learning, and mobility issues as participants and all are educated about access issues of those with disabilities. During the 2011 camp, a teen with a diagnosis of autism successfully completed the week of activities. READY youth are involved in activities and service learning projects that address the inclusion, integration, dignity, independence, accessibility and self-determination for all individuals. Maggie Menard-Mueller, a full-time junior high teacher, has been a McPherson College instructor on accommodating disability differences in the classroom. She and three of her students will share ways their school's School Emergency Response Team has grown over the past six years to become a vital component of their schools safety plan. In April 2011, Menard-Mueller integrated FEMA's STEP program through a highly successful peer-to-peer education program that included students with cognitive, behavioral, and mobility issues both as instructors and students.
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Getting Real IIPromising Practices in Inclusive Emergency Management for the Whole Community |