MAHONING VALLEY Program pairs students with their special-needs peers

The Project Support program is now in schools across the state.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Melanie Stanley and Stacy have been friends for more than a year, spending some Saturdays just hanging out and other times at a movie or dinner.
Nothing would be extraordinary about the friendship, except the two young women might not have ever crossed paths if not for a program geared toward bringing young people like them together.
Melanie, an 18-year-old Boardman High School senior, and Stacy, a Boardman High School graduate with special needs, participated in Project Support -- a program that pairs special-needs and traditional students in an effort to foster understanding among all students.
Boardman's Amanda Clark, 18, said the program has given her a better understanding of fellow students, helped her make additional friends and has helped her choose a future career.
Nancy Bare, an adviser in the Boardman program, said the goals are simple -- create a support system for all students, regardless of differences in learning or physical abilities, and foster a climate where students acting as peer supporters will choose careers in education.
"We want not only the members of the program, but the students in the school in general to have a greater awareness of those with special needs and to recognize them as the people they are," said Bare.
Planned activities
The students come together several times a year at various social events, such as a dance last week in the cafeteria. There are summer camps, and special-needs students receive academic tutoring from their traditional counterparts.
Regional leader Karen Dennison said the program was started in the early 1970s at Springfield Local High School in New Middletown by now-state director Sally E. Pisarchick and has since grown statewide.
Local high schools with existing programs or programs in the early stages are Canfield, Salem, Austintown Fitch, Struthers, Springfield, Boardman, Rayen and the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.
There are also programs at some elementary and junior high schools.
Dennison said the program works well on all levels. She remembers an instance where program members made an early summer call to the mother of a student who is cognitively slow and does not make friends as quickly as others.
The group, she said, knew the girl might spend the summer months without many friends around and wanted her to spend time with them.
"That mother was so impressed," she said. "That shows you what these kids take away from this at the end of the day."
Recruiting teachers
The program also is working to create a new generation of special education teachers. Dennison said Ohio is short on special education teachers and a number of students from the program go into the field.
That will likely be true for Stanley and Clark. Both plan on becoming special education teachers -- a decision they say was made after spending time in the program.
jgoodwin@vindy.com