Class shows city, metro district staffers how to best work with people with special needs

Pueblo Parks and Recreation and Pueblo West Metro District staff members took part in a class earlier this month to learn how to best communicate and interact with people who have special needs.

The three-hour class on April 14 was led by Megan Betts and Kathy Schleifer, speech and occupational therapists, respectively, and Katie Ledbetter of Health Solutions. The class was designed to teach staff members about sensory processing disorder, behavior management and communication, among other conditions and scenarios that arise in working with people with special needs.

At the time of the class, the city parks department and Special Needs Community Connections, a Pueblo nonprofit that seeks to promote recreational activities for the special needs community, were just a week away from launching a new recreational program. The class was a way to better prepare staff in how to interact with people with special needs and help them learn about modifications they may need to make to accommodate those needs.

Several local entities in recent months have been working to introduce special needs-friendly programs to supplement a few others that are already active in Pueblo. But to deliver on what organizers feel is an important component — inclusiveness — a class and further research were identified as pathways to help fulfill the promise they feel these new programs can deliver.

“We’re trying to teach people the skill it takes to work with the special needs population and caregivers and parents and be understanding to meet their needs,” said Elizabeth Harmes, founder of Special Needs Community Connections. “That way, when we deliver a program, it is inclusive and does meet everyone’s needs.”

The city and nonprofit started a free weekly program last week called “Inclusive Hour” at El Centro Del Quinto Sol recreation center. It is available between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. every Friday until May 26.

The program is tailored to people with special needs and features a multipurpose room where they can engage with activities such as a sensory tub, which stimulates certain senses by encouraging them to use their hands or different tools, or play with a textured sensory ball, among others. That room also has a tent that serves as a quiet space with similar toys.

The center also has a gym where people with special needs can play pickleball in a broad space designed to give them “freedom of movement with different choices,” said Paula DeHerrera, recreation specialist for El Centro Del Quinto Sol, which is under the umbrella of the city’s parks department.

The hope among staff is that people who visit the program have a safe space where they can move freely and “explore and learn,” DeHerrera said.

On the second floor of the rec center is its activity center, where attendees can participate in billiards. All areas have a staff member on site who took part in the recent class and implemented its teachings, either through their interactions with people who stop by or in how they set up a specific station.

“We’re trying to differentiate between what would work for some and what would work for others,” said Shamari Lewis, a 25-year-old staffer on DeHerrera’s team who took the class after working with students with special needs in high school.

“A lot of these young adults, kids who have special needs, feel left out and not included,” Lewis added. “It’s like we’re pushing them away, instead of opening the door and welcoming them.”

Keeping that goal of inclusiveness in mind, Lewis and other staff members recently adjusted their sports activity area after learning it was likely too complicated. The playground balls were too heavy and the plan to give the special needs individuals partners during an activity was something they weren’t ready for, Lewis said.

More: Pueblo has few recreation options for people with special needs, but that could change

The group reevaluated that idea and decided to add smaller and lighter playground balls.

“You have to really kind of take a seat and watch what they’re doing, and then really be able to develop and make it a better product for each individual,” Lewis said.

A similar approach will be utilized for other up-and-coming programs from the city and Special Needs Community Connections, such as the Pueblo Inclusion Garden, an inclusive community garden slated to begin May 19 at the Mineral Palace Greenhouse, and the Monthly Park Project, a sensory-friendly immersive learning experience that started Friday and will be held on various dates this summer.

The Pueblo West Metro District may start its own inclusive swim program around that time and could employ two people with special needs to run concessions, Harmes said. Pueblo West Metro lifeguards may go through speech therapy training before that program would start.

“It was really important that we went through all that training,” DeHerrera said. “A variety of people who are very experienced passed on that knowledge to us, and it was very beneficial.”

“What it did is it built a bridge,” Harmes said of the class. “It really bridged two populations together and gave parks and rec (staff) a skill that’s a life skill that everyone should have. We should all be working towards being inclusive.”

For more information about “Inclusion Hour” and other upcoming programs, call 719-283-6848 or visit sncommunityconnections.org/projects.

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @josuepwrites.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo parks, metro district staffers learn importance of inclusivity