People with Purpose Takes Part in Pilot Program for ISU Extension
People with Purpose receiving their My Wellbeing certificates
People with Purpose just wrapped up a new pilot program with the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. The My Wellbeing program, called Wellness Wednesdays by PWP, provided an introductory, interdisciplinary approach to enhance adult individual wellbeing and quality of life in ways that are personally meaningful to participants with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.
The goals of the program are to increase participants’ awareness and knowledge related to wellbeing, have participants engage in creating individual action steps related to wellbeing, and to integrate positive choices in their individual lifestyles.
The program included five, 45-60 minute sessions focused on taking time for themselves, social emotional learning, finances, physical health, and the final session where they put it all together.
Kyle, our Director of Dayhab, said that the participants received the information well and were receptive to it. He even said that several participants were interested in taking what they learned and applying it to their own lives by eating healthier and watching what they spend when they go out.
The ISU Extension plans to roll out the program to a broader audience once they’ve fine tuned the program. Jenn Best, an ISU Extension Educator who took PWP through the program, said that they had a state-wide, cross-disciplinary team working to adapt a previous version of the program to a format that was more accessible to people with intellectual and development disabilities. The team, that included both subject matter experts in the topics discussed as well as experts in the programs for individuals with intellectual and/or development disabilities, spent 18 months working on it.
“There is another pilot being conducted now in Northwest Iowa. After that pilot, there will be revisions made to the curriculum based on the information we learned in the pilot. Then, there will be an additional two pilots in other places in Iowa,” said Best.
Best went on to say, “our goal with this program is that this be a first step for Human Sciences Extension and Outreach toward true inclusion. The mission of Iowa State University Extension and Outreach is to build a strong Iowa by engaging all Iowans in research, education, and Extension experiences to address current and emerging real-life challenges. All Iowans includes citizens with disabilities. However, we also recognize that since this is a relatively new audience for us, we need to make connections within our communities that allow us to learn about how to provide high-quality programs for individuals with ID/DD from the experts - individuals and their service providers. Through these relationships we aim to build familiarity and trust within our communities so that we can begin to explore other ways we can engage individuals with disabilities in our programs.”
To learn more about the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach visit https://www.extension.iastate.edu/.
To learn more about People with Purpose visit https://www.handinhandqc.org/people-with-purpose.