Several local organizations were on hand for the Special Education Fair at Pleasant Valley School on March 26
The special education parent advisory groups (SEPAG) of the Mantua, Harrison Township and Clearview Regional school districts teamed up to host their annual special education fair on March 26 at Pleasant Valley School.
The event’s stated purpose is to provide students and parents who have kids with disabilities – both physical and mental – with access to resources. Vendors representing several county services were set up in the school’s cafeteria and gymnasium.
The three minds behind the event were Harrison’s director of student services, Lori Hynes; Mantua’s director of special services, Stephanie Logan; and Clearview’s director of special services, Nathan Barnes.
“We all work together to get the vendors in order, and organize and plan the event for all three of our communities,” Hynes explained.
Each director sends the word out to other local districts and the Gloucester County Special Services School District to try to help as many people as they can.
The vendors at Pleasant Valley were split into four categories based on their specialties. They included transitional services such as Abilities Solutions; informational services such as Heart to Heart and the county YMCA; and therapeutic services, such as Modern Music Therapy LLC.
“It’s all about resources for students with special needs, students with exceptional needs,” Hynes pointed out. “It’s for students that age out of school-based services and are over 21. It’s for students that are pre-school level.
“It’s basically for every age student in the community and their families to find resources.”
The event was set up to connect those families with applicable services and make them aware of what’s available depending on their needs. In some cases, according to Barnes, resources may even come from the families themselves.
“They’re like, ‘Hey this is great, but I need to see this club or this activity,'” he said. “We’ll reach out the next year to see if we can get them to come. We’ve never had the same vendors here. It tends to cycle through people’s availability, and then also families that say, ‘Hey I’ve used this; it’s been great. Can you try to get them to come?'”
“It’s great to bring everybody in one place for our families,” Logan observed. “Because there’s organizations here at the state level, there’s organizations that are local. There’s so much support and some people don’t know all of the resources that are out there.
“So, when they come, we let them come to our community.”
