Career Connections reviving inclusive education program

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/07/2022 (1316 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Career Connections wants to bring back Brandon’s Inclusive Post-Secondary Education program in hopes of giving adults with intellectual disabilities access to an authentic university experience once again.

Career Connections executive director Tracy Williams told the Sun she has been trying to resurrect the program since it was shuttered last year, knowing how much it meant to families in the region.

“I’m really excited that we’re able to bring this program back to the community,” she said. “I truly believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to go to university if that’s what their personal choice is.”

While Inclusion Westman kick-started the program in 2017, representative Debby Dandy said their efforts were chronically underfunded from the beginning, with the non-profit organization relying on a few federal grants to keep everything afloat.

“We just could never get any traction with the [provincial] government for funding,” Dandy said on Monday. “So I think we’re relieved, we’re happy to see the program continue.”

Williams told the Sun that underfunding won’t be an issue this time around, since she already has access to plenty of provincial dollars through her operations at Career Connections.

This news is very comforting to Michelle Magnusson, Brandon University’s student accessibility co-ordinator, since the appeal of the old Inclusive Post-Secondary Education (IPSE) program was that special-needs students would get the opportunity to complete a full three- to four-year run at the school uninterrupted.

“Typically, what they would do is take one or two courses each term for three to four years,” Magnusson said.

“The exciting part about the students who have participated in and graduated from the program is they participate in BU’s convocation. They get to walk across the stage alongside their peers and receive their certificate.”

Recent IPSE participant Bryce Eakins Collister, who lives with cerebral palsy, graduated from BU last year just as the program was shutting down.

Collister was “very excited” to hear that the program is returning, since he treasured his time becoming a member of the BU community, he told the Sun in an email on Monday.

“As a BU student, I feel included in my classes and on campus,” he wrote in a letter to the Sun in April 2021, shortly after Inclusion Westman announced that the program would be shutting down.

“I am an active member of the BU Physical Education Club (BUPEC), as well as was a participant and presenter at their 2020 conference at Duckworth Centre [at] University of Winnipeg. I have made new, lifelong friendships and enjoy meeting people on campus that share my interests.”

Williams is also looking to use her resources through Career Connections to add an extra dimension to the new IPSE program and transform it to be “fully rounded.”

This means adding a work training component through Career Connections’ pre-existing Vocational Development program, which will allow IPSE students to learn hands-on skills in their discipline of choice when class isn’t in session.

Not only will this better prepare IPSE students for life outside of school, but Williams said maintaining this kind of balance between work and school is much more authentic to the overall post-secondary experience.

“When we go to university and college, we have part-time jobs. That’s just a regular part of campus life,” she said. “So we would help them find part-time jobs in the community to make it a truly inclusive post-secondary experience.”

While no one has currently signed up for the new version of IPSE, Williams is looking to recruit at least four to five students for the beginning of the upcoming fall semester.

Having worked alongside Williams in the past, Dandy is certain that IPSE is in good hands, especially since Inclusion Westman will remain on board in a consulting capacity.

“Tracy has a real gift in creating new programs and delivering them,” Dandy said. “So I’m quite confident that [Career Connections] will nurture IPSE the same way that we would have.”

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson