Others imitate joint SRU-YMCA project
The "I Can Do It, You Can Do It" program run by Slippery Rock University and the Butler County Family YMCA has received its share of praise from professionals throughout the country. In fact, eight other sites will be implementing the program within a year, using the local program as a model.
According to the directors of the program, however, the best praise comes from its users. For example, Valerie Stiffy of Butler has come back three times to use the program because she enjoys it so much.
The mentoring program is designed for people with intellectual or physical disabilities to work one-on-one with Slippery Rock University students who are earning a minor in Adapted Physical Activity.
While mentees like Stiffy usually participate for a four- or five-month period, she has come back for the third time because she enjoys the individual help and the physical activity. Stiffy said she iss an active person to begin with, walking in town every day and practicing tennis, volleyball and bowling — all of which she plays in the Special Olympics. Now she has set a goal for herself with the YMCA program: to lose weight.
"I just enjoy it," she said. "I get to meet more people and use the machines here."
Her mentor, Jessica Baker, a senior exercise science major and adapted physical activity minor at SRU, helps plan a workout routine and keep track of Stiffy's progress. Baker said working with Stiffy is easy
"She tries everything once," Baker said. "She's very open-minded."
Baker hopes to attend physical therapy school in the future and enjoys the chance to work with community members in the YMCA program.
"When you apply what you learn, it's great," she said. "That's why I learned it."
The three-year-old program now has 30 participants of all ages, each paired with their own mentor. The YMCA offers free use of the facility to those involved.
"This program is a great collaboration," said Sandra Ihlenfeld, senior physical director of the Butler YMCA.
"The YMCA is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to create programs that strengthen spirit, mind and body.
"This program focuses on those with disabilities, a population group that sometimes is harder to work with."
For example, those with disabilities sometimes need special equipment that otherwise is unavailable, Ihlenfeld said.
"I've got the the facility. They may as well fill it up," she added.
And according to Betsy Kemeny, faculty coordinator for "I Can Do It, You Can Do It," that's where the SRU students should be helping people.
"This is a community-based program," she said. "We want to come to where the people are."
Kemeny said she's watched the program "grow and blossom" since it began three years ago. Now other universities and agencies from California to New York are using SRU as a model site.
Kemeny credited Ihlenfeld and the YMCA staff in helping to work out all the details of the program. Coordinating schedules between mentors and mentees and finding ideal times for them to use the facility are two examples of those "infrastructure," concerns, according to Kemeny.
The "I Can Do It, You Can Do It" mentoring program is sponsored by the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust administrated through the Foundation of the NIH. Community partnerships include Allegheny Valley Schools, Arc of Butler County, Health Care Quality Unit and Community Health Connections.
"I Can Do It, You Can Do It" was created by the Office on Disability, Department of Health and Human Services run by Robert Arnhold, project director. Arnhold also is a technical consultant for the national expansion and evaluation of the program.
For more information on the program, call 724-738-4864. More information about the Butler County Family YMCA is available at www.bcfymca.org or by calling 724-287-4733.
