Youth Programs

It’s that time of the year. Just as we start to think about turkey and stuffing with cranberries, it’s time for blind kids in the area to get hands-on with shark innards!

As he has for more than a decade, Arapahoe Community College’s Biology Professor Terry Harrison will lead a shark dissection at CCB on Friday, November 18. Harrison has partnered with CCB to ensure that blind kids in Colorado get actual experience in this one aspect of the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Participants will handle the scalpels, determine sex, examine the lungs, liver and those sharp little dog shark teeth.

Start time is 10 a.m. on Friday and wraps up at 1 p.m. following pizza (no anchovies).

Students, teachers, or parents can contact Youth Services Director Brent Batron for more information or to reserve a spot – after all, there are only going to be so many sharks!

Got about 20 minutes to be wowed?

We’re just back from our 2016 National Federation of the Blind of Colorado Convention in Lone Tree from October 27 to 30. All staff and students attended and, since we’re an NFB training center (the NFB of Colorado started the Center in 1988), Executive Director Julie Deden always makes a report the the entire convention about all that’s happened in the last year. It’s always a highlight of an affiliate convention that is full of highlights.

This year Julie’s report included this video of 2016 highlights and retrospective of our graduates this year. But you’ll have to wait till the end for the really, really cool part …

The culmination of the Summer Program each year is of course the awarding of certificates and the talent show. Before that can happen, however, the masses must be fed. The summer students and their instructors draw on their collective learning in the kitchen over the summer and cook a meal for as many as 120 guests. All ITP staff and students, summer staff and students, parents and summer employers are invited.

If you didn’t get to test the meal for yourself, you can get an idea how it turned out watching the video:

Not only did we say good-bye to our 24 summer students in the past week, we also saw the departure of two friends and colleagues who’ve been with us for much of July.

We’ve been excited to host Kimie Beverly as a student for the past three weeks. Kimie is President of the National Federation of the Blind of Nevada and a past NFB Scholarship recipient. Sunday she flies to Baltimore where she starts on Monday working at our National Center for the Blind on legislative initiatives such as the Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment, or TIME Act.

Americans with disabilities relegated to the injustice and indignity of subminimum wages have a new champion in Kimie Beverly! It’s been great to have you with us Kimie!

Hard to believe our summer programs are coming to an end. Today summer Earn & Learn students are finishing up their 40-hour internships across the Metro area. Not only do they gain valuable work experience – for some it’s their first paid job – but they travel independently to their job sites on foot and by public transportation. Jobs include retail, reception, food service, checking web accessibility, radio production in Boulder, child care and all the chores at a riding stable, among others. 

Saturday, July 16 was our Summer Science Seminar. With 24 summer youth we divided into three groups and rotated between three science activities. Martin strapped on the Go Pro and followed all three groups through their water rocket activity with Jamie Principato, a blind physics student who just finished her Associate’s degree at Arapahoe Community...

Christina, Keaton and Marie are working as interns for our long-time partners, The Right Step this summer. In fact, it’s Marie’s second year in our summer program and working at The Right Step. Their work includes cleaning stalls, cleaning old horse shoes to be reused, cleaning tack and taking care of the horses.

This morning they cleaned tack and then helped put up new Braille labels in the tack room. That’s the subject of this short video.

As an FYI, each horse has its own bag with its very own curry comb and brush, halter, lead rope and hoof pick.

The Right Step is a therapeutic riding program and the first of its kind in the U.S. to have Braille – not just in the tack room, but on the horses’ stalls too!

Twenty-four blind and visually-impaired Front Range youth spent the weekend of April 22-24 in Estes Park. It had been planned as a snow-shoe trip, but instead the kids and 9 adults took a 6-and-a-half mile hike in Rocky Mountain Park.

The Colorado Center for the Blind Youth Programs have been busy in 2016. Brent and others continue to make twice-monthly visits to the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind as part of our ongoing mentoring partnership with CSDB. In January, We worked with 22 students combined in both the Bridges to Life Program and in middle school. The focus for the month was about fitness and we had the kids moving while learning how the foods they eat affect them. Students Activities included jumping jacks, sit-ups, push-ups and running in the gym.

Julie Hunter and ITP student Kierra proctored the Varsity group for the 2016 Braille Challenge.

The holiday season is always a busy time as well as a family time, and it’s no different with our Colorado Center for the Blind family.

Travel Instructor Steve Patten always volunteers to take a hand helping with Christmas cookies. He and student Natalya look sharp in matching red aprons.

While many were preoccupied with Cyber Monday, we brought in our tree and decorated it in the meeting room. Cookies were baking in all three ovens in the kitchen. Even Travel Instructor Steve Patten donned a red apron to help out. Meanwhile, out at the front desk, Robert solemnly presided over the drawing of names for the Secret Santa exchange as he does each year.