Serving People with Special Needs in Lake Forest - Part 2

Yesterday we looked at the City’s plan to be a “host town” for the World Special Olympics to be held in Los Angeles in July. Today we’ll look at some of the other activities by the City to support people with special needs.

The City works with two Lake Forest businesses to offer programs as part of its contract class offerings which are publicized in the Leisure Times

• Us Too Gymnastics (located on Spectrum Pointe Drive) is a non-profit that offers programs specifically for special needs children. The company offers gymnastics classes and social programs.

• Swim Labs (located on Bake Parkway) offers swim programs for adults and children with special needs.

Staff also works closely with Lake Forest Little Leagues Challenger Baseball Program and the AYSO VIP (Very Important Player) Program. These organizations offer coaching, games, and other activities for special needs children that are focused on sports. The programs are held at the City’s fields and information about them is published in the Leisure Times

The City has a Universally Accessible Playground at Pittsford Park that enables children and adults with special needs to play with their able-bodied friends and family members in a playground environment. The renovations were completed and became available to the public in October 2008.

Staff will be offering a second Special Needs Dance for Teens and Adults with special needs on April 10, 2015, from 7:00-9:00pm at the City Hall. Over 100 adults, teens and caregivers attended the City’s inaugural dance, which took place last Fall.

Using the Community Development Block Grant program the City supports several agencies that provide services to people with special needs, most notably Vocational Visions that provides job training for dozens of developmentally disabled residents of the City.

These diverse activities are targeted to serve people with special needs. Beyond these, there are a host of other programs supported by the City that serve a broad constituency that includes people with special needs.
If you have suggestions or comments, please visit the Facebook page Lake Forest Town Square.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 2 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every moth. The next meeting will be April 18 from 2 to 4 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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