The Abilities Centre, a New Incredible Facility!
The Abilities Centre is a fully integrated and fully accessible multi-purpose facility created to help those with special needs and all abilities to learn and experience recreational and life skills in an inclusive setting. The centre is located in Whitby, Ontario and is directly located off of Iroquois Sports Centre. This allows the Centre to use the swimming pool and ice rinks for their programs as well. The centre includes three basketball courts with a track surrounding the outside, fitness rooms, sensory rooms, and life skills rooms including a drama room, music room, art room, library and an apartment style learning facility. The centre is fully accessible to any type of ability or special needs, such as people in wheel chairs. Their goal is to enhance the individual’s life and abilities in order to make it as enjoyable as possible. The vision of the centre is very clear and incredible. Their vision is to help educate and include different people of many abilities into one positive environment where they can be themselves. It is also an environment where everyone is equal and it helps enhance their social skills. The Abilities Centre offers many different programs for all different kinds of special needs and abilities. The programs range from children’s camp programs, to adult life-skills programs and many more. By giving individuals the opportunity to be a part of a team or group, it gives them the hope, and the experience of learning new activities, creating new goals, and interacting with people that they haven’t interacted with before. The centre has based their main goals and visions around an inclusive environment. They have hired many volunteers and staff in order to work with the members of the centre. They are there to interact with and help the individuals realize how to work with different types of people. All of the staff and volunteers are very well trained and are ready to take on an exciting challenge! The Abilities Centre was created to help those with special needs or abilities learn and experience new things in their lives and this is an amazing program that will change many people’s lives in a positive way. Just as the staff of the Abilities Centre say, “building partnerships, creating futures!”
The Abilities Centre building is located on Gordon St. in Whitby, Ontario. It is directly connected to Iroquois Sports Centre, a recreational sports complex
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Ken Shaw, the chairman of Durham's new Abilities Centre, gives an introduction and a sneak peek of the building!
New Futuristic Products!
Imagine, a futuristic way for people with disabilities who use wheelchairs to get around just as easy as anyone else! Since the Abilities Centre is very modern and unique, it has many new and imporved products that apply to many different disabilities and disorders. For example, in the gym and workout area, all of the equipment is designed to work for anybody of any ability, like an individual in a wheelchair! A product that could be modernized is the wheelchair. Wheelchairs are outdated and in our time now, we could find a way to make it easier for people with disabilities to get around! This video shows a very unique and futuristic wheelchair that has many cool features! These features include three-wheeled wheels that allow the chair to easily move from one position to another, and walk upstairs without needing a ramp. The chair can also extend its legs in order to go over an obsticle. A way to make this product more interactive could be by syncing it to a new app possibly called "wheelz" which would allow you to control the wheelchair in the palm of your hand! These new products would make life easier for individuals with disabilies and should be created as soon as possible!
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Partnerships Working Together to Create an Enjoyable Environment for All!
The Abilities Centre is a 40 million dollar project that was
created to enhance the lives of individuals with all abilities at any age. In
order to make this complex successful, it required teamwork, donations, and
partnerships. Many different businesses, schools and corporations joined
together in order to make the building what it is today. Donations are given to
the complex to allow the members to have many more options for activities to do
while they are there. Some partnerships that were established, decided to
donate different objects or services to the complex. These partnerships include
Durham College who donated the time and services to teaching individuals how to
live life on their own, by using the life skills area within the complex. This
area includes a room apartment, with a kitchen to show them how to cook, and a
washing area to show them how to clean and wash clothes. Durham College’s
culinary program has teamed up with the centre to teach the members how to cook
for themselves which would give them hope for independence. This donation of
time works positively for both teams as Durham College inherits the experience
of teaching skills to people with all abilities and the complex inherits
students teaching their individuals their specialties. Another partnership that
was established with the centre was with McDonalds. McDonalds has donated a
playground for children to be built in the right-hand corner of the complex. This
will be very useful as it will accommodate many people such as children with disabilities
or without disabilities or children of parents who belong to the centre. MTC
and Sony also donated many products that will be used all around the complex.
Some products that were donated for example were large screen televisions that
were set up in the workout areas so that people can be entertained while
working out. Other very important partnerships that were established were with different
universities around the city of Toronto such as schools including U of T
Scarborough Campus, Durham College, Bloorview and Grandview. Partnering up with
the centre allows the schools to research certain aspects such as the services
and programs within the complex to make sure that they are providing as much educational
based knowledge as possible. Teamwork, partnerships and donations have raised
the bar for the Abilities Centre and have made it into a very positive
environment that many individuals will soon enjoy!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Special Olympics Held in Whitby!
How neat would it be if the special olympics were held at the Abilities Centre in our very own city? Pretty neat! The Special Olympics is a fun competition for people with special needs and disabilities that provides an opportunity for physical activity and promotes acceptance, inclusion and respect. The goal is to create friendly competiton where everyone can be together by doing activities that they enjoy! If we brought the Special Olympics to the Abilities Centre, it would give the people from the GTA the chance to get involved as well. The complex would be able to hold the event as it is fully integrated and has an area for each sport. It would also be a good idea to hold it at the centre because it is connected to Iroquois Sports Complex which could be used for swimming competitions and ice rink skating competitions!
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The Drama Program!
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| Performing Arts Theatre |
Drama is an artistic way to express oneself. It is the means of becoming something you are not and finding a creative way to pursue this. Drama is a very useful art for many people as it allows them to express themselves in ways that they have not before. Bringing a drama program into the centre would be very fun and exciting for many members! It would be a way for the individuals to interact with each other while participating in fun activities and mini shows! If there was a drama program in the Abilities Centre, it would enhance the individuals with any ability, disability or special needs to move around, create mini plays, and participate in fun dramatic activities! Also, within the centre, there is a mulit-purpose area that has a stage in the room where the program could be held. The stage is also a great way for the individuals to feel important as they could show their skills to an audience! The centre would have special employees in to teach this program to make sure that the individuals are gaining as much drama experience as possible. I myself, am a drama student and I love preparing activities for children, and shows to put on for their parents. In this case, I would prepare many fun and interactive activities for people of all abilities of any age in order to make it as enjoyable as possible! Taking drama all through high school has shown me that it is a way to make you more social with your peers and allows you to have fun while doing fun activities as well!
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