February 2023 - Kindness

Can you imagine a world where kindness is the norm and not the exception? February 12th through February 18th was Random Act of Kindness Week, but in the day and age we are living, what if we all spread kindness regularly, year-round? Where we all pay it forward, where we all look out for one another, and where we succeed by being nice. Let’s vow to be kinder this year as the world heals from an ongoing pandemic, and some of the most polarized and devisive times in history. Love and kindness are never wasted, you will never regret being kind, and all humans have the ability to participate, it all starts with one act. Take the pledge to #MakeKindnesstheNorm by encouraging and celebrating acts of kindness today and every day!

The Kindness Curriculum: Introducing Young Children to Loving Values

By: Judith Anne Rice

This book contains activities designed to help children learn kindness and empathy for other. Activities are provided for the following areas: love, empathy, gentleness, respect, visualization, self-control and conflict resolution. Includes worksheets for each area.

We are All Welcome Here

By: Elizabeth Berg

From Publishers Weekly, based on a true story, We Are All Welcome Here, features three women, each struggling against overwhelming odds for her own kind of freedom.

It is the summer of 1964. In Tupelo, Mississippi, the town of Elvis’s birth, tensions are mounting over civil-rights demonstrations occurring ever more frequently–and violently–across the state.

But in Paige Dunn’s small, ramshackle house, there are more immediate concerns. Challenged by the effects of the polio she contracted during her last month of pregnancy, Paige is nonetheless determined to live as normal a life as possible and to raise her daughter, Diana, in the way she sees fit–with the support of her tough-talking black caregiver, Peacie.

Diana is trying in her own fashion to live a normal life. As a fourteen-year-old, she wants to make money for clothes and magazines, to slough off the authority of her mother and Peacie, to figure out the puzzle that is boys, and to escape the oppressiveness she sees everywhere in her small town. What she can never escape, however, is the way her life is markedly different from others’. Nor can she escape her ongoing responsibility to assist in caring for her mother. Paige Dunn is attractive, charming, intelligent, and lively, but her needs are great–and relentless.

As the summer unfolds, hate and adversity will visit this modest home. Despite the difficulties thrust upon them, each of the women will find her own path to independence, understanding, and peace. And Diana's mother, so mightily compromised, will end up giving her daughter an extraordinary gift few parents could match.

Feelings and Choices Flip Book (Social Skills Curriculum)

Teaching aid that helps children learn to recognize, name, and identify appropriate responses to 28 emotions and moods. Increases emotional intelligence for early learners. Ideal for parents, teachers, therapists or anyone working with children. Promotes emotional development, self-regulation, relationship building and independence.

Weighted Compression Vest

The Weighted Compression Vest from Fun and Function was designed by an occupational therapist. It is made for wearers who are on the autism spectrum scale or who have hyperactivity or sensory processing disorder. The vest is made to feel like a wearable hug to help children calm and focus. The vest offers a gentle deep pressure for steady body awareness. The vest comes with weights that you place inside pockets in the vest. You can gradually adjust the amount of weights used and how long the person wears the vest. Adult supervision needed.

A Child's Champion – Julie Sole, Executive Director Disability Action Center

Julie has worked in social services since 2001, serving marginalized and at-risk populations at multiple capacities. For the last 13 years, she has dedicated to the Disability Action Center (DAC), focusing on growing programming, facility expansion and positive community presence and outreach. Julie's focus is on the positive attributes of the clients her Center serves and their families. She aims to educate the community on the importance of inclusion and promote the possibilities that come from partnerships and community engagement.

Julie's greatest accomplishments include engaging Marion county schools and establishing a partnership for aiding transition and employment supports to special education classrooms, moving the DAC facility to #higherground after devastating flooding destroyed their building and threatened programming and services, and honing in on partnerships and community collaborative efforts to serve individuals with disabilities holistically.

Julie reports that being raised by a single mother, she faced discrimination. She quickly realized that her wants and needs were not dissimilar to others her age and that this concept is true for others. People have much more in common that differences and everyone needs a level of support, positivity, and encouragement. She hopes that the DAC is exactly that for all who enter the doors. She works hard to create an environment that embraces diversity and inclusion.

Julie's next focus is to expand outreach, improve programming, and offer an inclusive space for the community. With an over $750,000 investment in the existing main campus facility and $1M+ plans for a new inclusive wellness center and recreation area, the DAC is building a campus directly off the gateway connector that will significantly impact programs for people of all abilities in North Central WV for years to come.

We're excited for your accomplishments and grateful for your passion and motivation to continue bringing inclusion and programs to individuals with disabilities and their families in North Central West Virginia, Julie! Thanks for the difference you make!