DREAMS FOR KIDS DC

Participating in challenging activities with peers increases and reinforces a child's positive belief in their own abilities, building immeasurable confidence and self-esteem. [Data taken from the 2014 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium]. Currently, there are many communities for families with physical and developmentally disabled children; however, only one group (KEEN) provides a variety of recreational activities for these children. Other organizations segregate activities and support on the type of disability. There is a need to provide more and a larger variety of activities on a regular basis. Adaptive physical clinics help move children with disabilities off the sidelines to engage in sports, arts and other recreational activities. When adaptive programs are inclusive of all ages and all disabilities, as well as and non-disabled peers and siblings—it allows those with disabilities to grow beyond the segregated settings that have existed for so many years. This variety and inclusion gives children a chance to try different sports, adds to the skills developed, and increases the likelihood of finding activities for lifetime participation, which can lead to growth in social skills. We differentiate ourselves from our competitors by the quality and abundance of volunteer support we offer. Each of our clinics ensures a 1:1 ratio of volunteer to participant. This amount of attention helps build confidence in the participant, and helps them 'come out of their shell'. These volunteer-participant relationships also continues outside of DFKDC. We have had many parents request to contact their volunteers to further the bond the volunteers/participants created at DFKDC clinics; thereby, creating a mentorship relationship much like Big Brothers & Big Sisters. <br/><br/>This also shows the impact of DFKDC on volunteers, and the importance of giving back and the impact young adults can make. DFKDC events accommodate a large number of participants [depending on the activity], giving 50 – 150 children the opportunity to attend. DFKDC also focuses on organizing highly visible clinics that garner a lot of interest and media attention--to enable us to promote and spread awareness for adaptive events in the area. DFKDC's clinics range from water-skiing to horseback riding to partnering with professional sports teams such as the Washington Capitals, Washington Redskins, and D.C. United.

We have over 700 participants and 1200 volunteers in our database. Through our programs, we are able to accomplish our goals of creating empowerment.

We perform monitoring and evaluation through pre-event and post-event surveys via Survey Monkey. The most pertinent questions we ask are quantitative and qualitative, including: the feelings of confidence, inclusion, and social interaction of the child before and after each clinic. We also collect testimonials from parents and/or children who are able to communicate their progress over the past 5 years. Currently, we have a catalog of testimonials from 2011 highlighting the different responses of parents and their participants post clinics. We also have a database of every participant, parent, and volunteer, and which clinics they have attended since 2012--allowing us to analyze the frequency of each individual's attendance; and which of our clinics are most attended/popular. Over a range of eight years, Dreams For Kids DC has served a total of 983 participants and 1726 volunteers. In 2018, we served 269 total unique participants and 308 total unique volunteers (90 of these participants were completely new and 177 were returning participants from previous years). We have seen proven successes from the pre and post clinic surveys, indicating increases in confidence level and social engagement of the participant after the clinics. Furthermore, it is important for us (as an organization) to keep changing our clinics to impact the child; therefore, in our surveys we ask for feedback (both positive and negative) in order to transform our clinics to better suit the needs of our children. For instance, educating our volunteers to better encourage and empower the participants at clinics through better training and orientation. A few examples of qualitative successes we have seen are: 1) Participant Michael Rivera, who has been a DFKDC participant since 2011, running for school president (and winning) in 2014 due to the confidence he has built to look past his physical disability (through DFKDC clinic attendance and volunteer encouragement) 2) Participant Liana Flynn (developmental disability and social anxiety, participant since 2011) finally getting on water skis for the first time at DFKDC's 2015 waterskiing clinic, after 4 years of repeated attendance. Liana's parents cried tears of joy as it was the first time she was brave enough to go in the water and allow water skis to be put on her, due to the engagement of DFKDC volunteers and repetitive attendance. 3) Participant Jerry Carroll Jr (participant since 2011 who has leg impairments, 18 years old as of 2015) graduated to becoming a volunteer for younger participants. Jerry always requests to volunteer and show younger generations (of disabled children) how to look past their obstacles and achieve success-- with the motto "I know I can". Jerry has taught other older participants who have disabilities to also take his lead and give back as a volunteer after being empowered as a participant for many years.

In 2017, DFKDC and the EDC Jewish Community Center (EDCJCC) teamed up to create a mentorship program entitled "Your Path To Success", which provided communication, leadership, and vocational skill building for young adults with developmental delays and/or physical disabilities in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area. The program concept derived from the need to provide DFKDC participants with resources to expand and grow after their time in DFKDC clinics. Congruently, the EDCJCC has been seeking more ways to engage their constituents with disabilities. Currently, in its pilot season, we had 6 mentors (volunteers) and 6 mentees (participants). Over the course of 6 months, the program offered participants both skill-building workshops on topics such as resume development, interviewing, and formal e-mail communication as well as off-site group community service projects, site visits to places that employ those with disabilities, and opportunities to network. We launched the second installment in January 2018. We had one mentee each from our 2017 and 2018 sessions gain employment! We seek for participants to walk away with meaningful relationships, new confidence, and real skills that allow them to pursue independence and gainful employment.