The Melissa Rotary has planned it's yearly service calander for 2011. One of the new programs that will be implemented this year is the Rotary Club's respite program for special needs families to be called "Kids Our Kids".
This program is to be modeled after the Highland Park United Methodist Church Night Owls Program.
The dates for this program are 3/12, 6/11, 9/10, 12/10 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Bascially this program is an opportunity to give parents with special needs kids a night out. Special needs families can't just call up regular sitters. It takes one-on-one attention. However, the families also bring their typical children to the program as well and they also get one-on-one attention.
Special needs families have divorce rates of between 85-90 percent. Much of this can be attributed to the fact that the parents can not focus any time on each other with a high focus needing to be on one child. The effects even trickle down to siblings who are also pushed aside to deal with the issues of the disabled child.
The Melissa Rotary Club is looking for families who will benefit from this type of service. If you know someone that could benefit from this service, please have them call J.J. Chapa at 972-254-2011.
Additionally, the Rotary Club is looking for business partners to help offset any costs through our business partership program. The service projects that the Melissa Rotary will be putting together will have some costs (ie. food expenses for participants) but will be powered by the volunteer efforts of the Melissa Rotary Club. For more information on how to be a Melissa Rotary Business Partner visit www.MelissaRotaryBusiness Partner.INFO.
For more information regarding the Kids our Kids Program visit: www.KidsOurKids.INFO
