Centre Participant Reads to Preschool Class

Teri Owens, a participant in the Community Skill-Building Program, has always been interested in advocacy and raising awareness about people who have disabilities.  On Tuesday April 14^th, Teri had the chance to reach out to some of Pittsburgh's youngest citizens. 

Teri was invited to read a story to a preschool class at Carnegie Mellon University's Children's School.  Lisa Furman, sister of UCP/CLASS Rehabilitation Specialist Brian Furman, invited Teri to come read to her class as part of a diversity program that the school does.  Teri chose to read Fang the Dentist. 

This is not the first time that Teri has had the chance to explore an exercise in diversity. Teri has previously read to a summer camp.  Teri had programmed the story into her communication device and then read it to the preschoolers.  After reading the story, Teri asked the students their names and programmed them into her device.  All of the kids got a kick out of the way Teri's device would say their names!  They really enjoyed Teri's visit. 

Teri also takes part in regular advocacy meetings that are held once a month at the Centre.  They are led by Rachel Freund, Disability Voting Coalition Project Coordinator of Mental Health America-Allegheny County, and discuss a number of topics including national and statewide concerns for people with disabilities.  Ms. Freund has also helped individuals to write letters to their state legislators and helped register individuals to vote.  One of their major projects was to help make sure that the new voting machines were accessible for everyone to vote.  Teri has been a part of the group since the beginning and the group has been meeting for three years now.  Again, great job Teri!