Mountain Causes: Irene Wortham Center offers pre-K program
ASHEVILLE - The children huddled around the tiny classroom desk, frenetically packing dirt, grass and foliage such as dandelions and pine cones into a plastic container on a recent morning.
Then came the worms, their hands gingerly placing the tiny wrigglers into what would eventually become vermicompost.
“Worms live outside, right? And they live in the dirt, right?” asked the teacher, Whitney Wright-Allison. “Well, what else do they need?”
“Banana peels!” one girl shouted. And, of course, water, the teacher added.
The lesson was part of an early learning program at the Irene Wortham Center, a longtime social service provider in South Asheville for children and adults with developmental disabilities, as well as for those facing financial challenges. In addition, it offers early care, taking infants as young as 6 weeks.
Of the 100 or so children currently enrolled, more than one-third have special needs, said Sandi Garcia Boyer, its marketing coordinator. Their disabilities range from speech impediments to autism and Down syndrome. Some are confined to wheelchairs or rely on feeding tubes; others have a shorter life expectancy.
Nearly all of them, however, come from low-income families.
As a result, the pre-kindergarten program is especially important, seen as helping close the achievement gap between affluent and less-privileged students. Children facing such circumstances are generally not prepared for kindergarten.
Open year-round, the center aims to help these children transition into the school system, teaching social skills and offering occupational and physical therapy in small classes.
“As they grow, people are less likely to be interested in them,” Boyer said of children with disabilities, particularly those from low-income families. “They need that care.”
Named after the first special education teacher in Western North Carolina, the Irene Wortham Center opened in the early 1960s in the auditorium of an old elementary school in Asheville. Less than a decade later, it moved to its campus on West Chapel Road and was later expanded.
In addition to its early learning program, the center has three residential homes for severely disabled people, from adolescents to those in their late 50s, as well as a day program for adults that teaches life skills. It also offers supported employment.
As for the students in the pre-K program, they receive vouchers from the Asheville and county school systems that coincide with the respective school year.
To cover additional costs, the nonprofit center seeks grants and individual donations, as well as organizes fundraisers. Its biggest one, an annual golf tournament, is scheduled for May 20 at the Etowah Valley golf resort, west of Hendersonville.
It also relies on volunteers, called foster grandparents, some of whom serve as teaching assistants.
“I try to love them every day,” Willie Smith, a retired Asheville city bus driver who lives in the Shiloh community, said of the children. He does, in fact, come in every day during the workweek, aiming to build confidence and looking after three children in particular.
On a recent visit, the youngsters were playfully candid and inquisitive, asking questions about how I got there and what it means to write for a newspaper.
Other questions involved less explaining.
“What’s your name?” one little girl with braided hair and a flower dress asked, scampering up to me shortly after I set foot on a buzzing playground outside the classroom.
“School is their comfortable place,” said Boyer, the marketing coordinator.
This is the opinion of Jake Flannick, filling in for Mountain Causes Reporter Beth Walton while she is out on maternity leave. Like Walton, each week I plan to volunteer around Asheville and share my adventure with our readers. If you'd like me to visit your group, contact me at jacobflannick@ gmail.com or 828-232-5829. More at www.citizen-times.com/causes.
GET INVOLVED
The Irene Wortham Center is always seeking volunteers. For more info, contact Eleanor Campbell 828-274-7518 ext. 155 or ecampbell@iwcnc.org , or visit http://www.ireneworthamcenter.org/volunteer/.