Inclusive Education Environment Issues

Community Gatepath Leads the Way in Special Education

Tucked in a small building behind Mills-Peninsula Hospital on a side street in Burlingame is a mighty nonprofit, Community Gatepath , which has been serving people with disabilities throughout San Mateo County for nearly 90 years. The organization’s motto is “Turning Disabilities into Possibilities,” and the programs it provides for the more than 8,000 community members are a testament to that catchy phrase.

Executive Director Sheryl Young has been with Community Gatepath for the past 24 years, although she said, “It feels like I just started a year ago because I am still learning and watching the programs grow.” Her focus for the past five years has been on programs for children and their families.

Early intervention focuses on a team approach

Community Gatepath provides early intervention services for children from birth to age three, many of whom are referred by their pediatricians. Special education teachers, occupational and physical therapists, psychologists and nurses work as a team in helping the children and their families. The organization also provides a variety of family support groups, some separated by age group and some by skill levels, and a resource center staffed by parents of children with special needs.

Learning Links Preschool is one of a kind

Learning Links , the preschool at Community Gatepath, provides an inclusive program for children ages two to five with special needs, as well as typically developing children. The goal is to make sure every child succeeds. The school was designed to fill the gap between Community Gatepath’s established program in early intervention and special education services provided by the elementary schools, and to fill a community need, as very few preschools around the county accept children with special needs.

Learning Links, which is a collaborative effort of Community Gatepath, the Burlingame Parks and Recreation Department and the Burlingame School District , serves 173 children, 20 percent of which are children with special needs. Not surprisingly, there’s a waiting list.

“Families of children with special needs are thrilled to have their kids in this inclusive environment,” said Young. “And families with typically developing children want them to learn tolerance, and not to be afraid of children with special needs. We wanted to make this program a model that could be replicated. Right now there is no other program like this in the nation, and people come from all over to see it in action.

Let's get the basics right « gds2040

Executive mayor Parks Tau on the Liveable Cities theme for GDS2040: Our goal is to get the basics right through improved service delivery and to start moving towards a City administration which can both conceptualise and realise plans which will accelerate growth and transformation in the City.

GDS2040 is currently based on the same principles as set out in the 2006 Growth and Development Strategy (GDS):

Supporting the Poor Diversified and Inclusive Economy Building Sustainable Human Settlements Resource Security and Environmental Sustainability Achieving Social Inclusion Promoting Good Governance

The current draft GDS (July 2011) has identified a number of focus areas which outline various goals and objectives:

Liveable Cities Resource Sustainability Health and Poverty Governance Transport Community Safety Environment Economic Growth Smart City

These goals will help us to shape the vision of Johannesburg.

We call on all the people of Johannesburg to engage with us on these various themes in the next nine week public outreach programme, we urge communities to engage us on these critical issues.

Liveable Cities

Liveability means different things to different people as their day-to-day experiences will differ according to their circumstances. However, most of you will agree that the following underpins the liveable concept:

Safety/Crime International Connectivity Quality Architecture Transport Environmental Issues (e.g. Climate change and global warming) Open Space Urban Design Business Conditions Proactive Policy Developments (e.g. poverty, water scarcity, demand site management, etc.) Stability Health Care Culture & Environment Education Infrastructure Housing

The Draft GDS identifies several challenges that must be addressed to improve the livability of the City.

These challenges include:

The environmental impact of the City’s traffic congestion and reliance on private transport pose a challenge to sustainable resource management. The City to cater for the needs of the poor – access to public transport and affordability of transportation is important. Spatial segregation has resulted in long travelling distances and major portions of disposable incomes spent on transport for a large part of the city’s population.

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