Fleming College

Community Living Peterborough has recognized Fleming College’s Joyce Wade for her dedication to inclusion in education.

Wade, coordinator of Fleming’s new Community Integration through Cooperative Education (CICE) program, has received Community Living’s 2011 Education Award.

The Education Award is given to an individual or organization that has made positive contributions toward the goal of meaningful inclusion in the school system.

According to Community Living, the key to building an inclusive school culture is to involve not only the academic side – teachers, students and education assistants in the classroom – but to the entire school community.

The award is presented to someone who shares this vision and who is prepared to make inclusion a critical component of a healthy school.

Wade received her award at Community Living Peterborough’s annual general meeting on June 21.

Fleming is one of only a handful of colleges offering a unique new program designed for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorder and brain injury.

The CICE program starts in September 2011 and will have room for 20 students. It is a two-year program and students graduate with an Ontario College Certificate.

The CICE program offers a combination of academic courses and cooperative education opportunities. It focuses on personal development, social opportunities and essential employability skills.

“This program will offer students a rich opportunity to develop academic and vocational skills while participating in an integrated post-secondary experience,” says Wade.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for students to attend college and to do so in their own community. Students will continue to develop essential workplace skills and experience a post-secondary program that offers a unique blend of core and optional courses in an integrated setting. Parents and their sons and daughters have been talking of this possibility for far too long. It has finally arrived,” said Ray Walt, chair of the CICE program advisory committee and former head of Special Education at St. Peter’s Secondary School.

For more information, visit www.flemingcollege.ca.

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