SRVS/Collierville Enhanced Learning Center offers a cutting
edge curriculum to enhance the life skills and academics of people with
disabilities. Community participation is a key aspect in getting persons
supported learning more about life and history.
SRVS/Collierville Enhanced Learning Center traveled to its community’s
history museum, the Morton Museum, for an outing. Cyndi Lou Griffin, Manager of
SRVS/Collierville Enhanced Learning Center, said, “The staff at the Morton
Museum was amazing with the people we support. One of the volunteers thanked
me, as we left, for allowing him the opportunity to meet our folks.”
The staff at the Morton Museum of Collierville History had
three learning activity stations set up in various rooms. Each activity taught the
people supported about the history of Collierville through demonstrations,
photos and hands-on activities. Ashley Carver, Director of Morton Museum of
Collierville History, told Griffin, “Our goal is for the museum to be available
for all who would like to explore it, so we were excited to tailor an
experience that would be meaningful to those supported by SRVS.”
One staff member and a special guest from the Civil War era
taught the people supported about the perspectives on the Civil War in West
Tennessee. Another educational station focused on cotton and corn. The people
supported were able to participate in sensory activities like pulling cotton,
mashing corn and holding dried soybeans. Shane, a center participant, said, “I
was wearing a civil war hat. I liked it a whole lot!” The last activity allowed
persons supported to express their creativity by sculpting their own bowls out
of clay.
“I personally think
it is a huge deal for people to get to learn about their community, be involved
in their community, and be accepted by their community. Our visit to the Morton
Museum was a perfect example of that.” said Griffin.
SRVS/Collierville
Enhanced Learning Center is one of three SRVS learning centers in Western
Tennessee. SRVS learning centers utilize the self-directed Montessori approach.
SRVS is proud to be a leader in providing innovative, person-centered services
for people with disabilities.