Our Halton Youth Disability Advisory Council meeting last night included a youth Design challenge. If you could design a youth meeting layout to be both safe and socially distant - how would you do it?
Some of the ideas for positive group meetings were always wear your mask. But what about creating masks with clear plastic for hearing impaired, to help people see what is being said. Love all these ideas!
‘We need to wear gloves,’ Jay says. Washable gloves to protect others and oneself. You can pack them in your school bag and wash them at home, so you won’t feel overwhelmed.’
“We could add disinfectant stations too,” says Teigan.
2 meters apart design by Kevin was absolutely brilliant. Kevin shared his design with the group and we loved the work he put into planning the perfect meeting.
Marking the spots was another brilliant idea - this included putting hula hoops out to show exactly where one should stand, this would help our community also process the procedure.
Videos to demonstrate new rules and regulations - visual learners would thrive with the expectations if they could first see the environment and plan accordingly.
Talking about community issues: employment for teens and youth was first on the table. Let’s talk about how difficult finding a job is if you have a disability and now with COVID-19 it’s almost impossible. So what can we as a crew do? Together the crew decided that doing education classes, interest courses, learning new things and preparing was the answer. “Filling our minds with new learning opportunities will help us prepare as well as build a stronger resume.” Says Aiden and Sierra. The conversation last night made both Ms Lisa Portelli and myself realize that our youth are 100% concerned about their future. They want security, to be employed, respected, included just like any other youth member. “I want to have a job.” Said Mel We as community/society need to take their futures seriously, start preparing early. It’s important that we have opportunities for our youth to grow, develop and be independently successful - let’s plan ahead. Last on our agenda, we also had a craft session- making masks by reusing and re-purposing old t-shirts. This was perfect for our sensory friends. Soft personal tee’s turned into personalized masks was a perfect way to end the meeting.