03/29/2024
Spread the love

By Amy Schumacher

The Bladen County Public Library in Elizabethtown recently hosted a meeting conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that offered early intervention information to be received and distributed to local groups, churches, medical offices, and any other areas that the group could identify that would be good locations for the display of informational packets.

The group that gathered for the event consisted of staff from the Board of Education Exceptional Children’s Department, town employees, the Department of Social Services employees and members of the Innovative Approaches Initiative which is supported by the NC Division of Public Health’s Children’s and Youth branch. “A three year grant has been received to strengthen the community knowledge concerning Children with Disabilities and how services can be obtained to help them,” said April Oxendine, spokesperson for the Innovative Approaches Initiative.

The most recent statistics for the number of children in the United States that have been diagnosed with some type of disability is 12% – 15%, according to the cdc.gov website. The percentage seems large and lends support to the theory there has been a major increase in the number of children being born with disabilities.

The diagnoses of “disabled” has expanded in significant ways over the past few decades. Having a disability is no longer seen as something to hide, but as something to embrace and with federal laws in place to protect children with disabilities, parents no longer try to hide their children’s problems but face them and work to ensure their kids have the best opportunities available to them.

Oxendine can be reached by phone 910-671-3423 or by email at april.oxendine@hth.co.robeson. nc.us if you would like information sent to you or if you feel led to help to serve your community and the needs associated with this initiative.

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