Adults with Intellectual Disabilities SOAR’ing to the Top!
Authors: Lauryn Garcia, Kim McNerlin, J'Nosha Miller, and Amedshy Zapata
Faculty Supervisor: Lesley Leonard, Ph.D.
Abstract:
The Social Opportunities and Active Recreation (SOAR) program gives adults with intellectual disabilities the chance to be social and get active. As part of the Wellness Methods and Strategies course, students worked weekly with SOAR clients creating activity plans that implemented different wellness strategies, such as nutrition and physical activity. Students were able to establish social relationships with the clients while teaching them ways to be healthy. This demographic is frequently neglected, but this service-learning experience showed that this is a population that needs extra support in these categories in order to flourish. Just like everyone else, they enjoy being social and active, so it is crucial to give them the opportunities to express themselves. The actions we plan to take in regards to our clients at SOAR are to continue a relationship with them in the Fall of 2019. We have made such an impact in their lives, as they have in ours. We are all people taking up space in this world, but the clients at SOAR need more love and compassion than most. We are their people!
