GESMV & URS - A Tag Team for Success

As a child with a disability, my parents sought out programs that gave me the best chance for a successful and independent life. One service that helped me as a young girl was the preschool offered through United Cerebal Palsy (UCP) of Greater Dayton. I can still remember some of the things I was taught during that era. Some of the greatest specialists I’ve ever had helped me learn how to use a specially designed fork to feed myself, and how to use the restroom on my own.

Although I have the best, most supportive family ever, I sometimes wonder where I’d be without UCP? Today, the facility is known as United Rehabilitation Services (URS). I am willing to bet that many parents of children with disabilities often feel lost - especially if disabilities are brand new to them. When disability diagnoses enter a parent’s world, all they really want to know is how to make life better for their child.

Because of a new partnership between URS and Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley (GESMV), success for young people with disabilities is expanding even further. GESMV & URS recently collaborated to provide families with a Therapeutic Intervention Preschool (TIP) classroom right on the URS campus. TIP classrooms are designed for children ages 0–5 with severe behavioral or emotional challenges who risk preschool expulsion. Its mission is to help to reframe children’s behavior and acclimate them back into a traditional classroom setting. This space will be the fourth TIP classroom to be led or co-led by GESMV.

To date, every child that has gone through this program has returned to their original school with supportive assistance. This is a big win! Before this program was created, many children with behavioral disabilities ran the risk of not being able to finish preschool.

I wish more “outside-the-box” programs like the TIP classroom existed to help children process their emotions, grow with support, and have the best outcome for success.

As we move forward, I wish the TIP classroom program great success helping children in need in this generation and the next. I would also like to thank URS for starting me down a path of success and GESMV for recognizing my potential as an employee, and for providing behavioral health programs that improve the lives of so many.

To ask whether the TIP classroom is right for your child, please contact Tracy Pohlabel, Youth Services Manager for URS, at 937-853-5428 or tpohlabel@ursdayton.org.