A Guide for Clergy

How Do We Make Our Congregations Friendly?
What Are Their Needs?
Understanding Is the Key
Volunteers - A Vital Part of Every Faith Community
Learning Suggestions for Church School Classes
What Congregations Can Do
For More Information

The World Council of Churches has made the following commitment:

"We commit ourselves to the conviction that full acceptance of persons with handicaps within the life, witness, and service of the Church is a requirement for the wholeness of the family of God."

On a practical level, this means:

• Making all of your programs and services accessible to all members and potential members of your congregation.
• Going beyond providing ministries FOR people with developmental disabilities and providing ministries WITH people who have developmental disabilities.
• Providing information to the congregation about disabilities.

When meeting a person with a developmental disability for the first time, you may not be sure how to interact with them. Some suggestions include:

• Talk to the person who has the disability, not just the person who happens to be with them.
• Don't be embarrassed to ask them to repeat themselves if you cannot understand what they are saying.
• If you cannot make yourself understood, use shortened sentences, single words and gestures to help them understand.
• If the person has a physical disability, they may need some assistance. Feel free to ask them if you can help.

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What Are Their Needs?

Like all of us, people with developmental disabilities have complex needs. Some of their more basic needs are:

• An opportunity to make friends and to develop relationships with others.
• An opportunity to receive an education which will prepare them to be contributing members of society.
• An opportunity to receive the necessary community services, which will support them in becoming valued members of their community.

The time for segregation of persons with disabilities is over. Studies show that others better accept students with developmental disabilities when they attend the same school as students with no disabilities.

In our faith communities, people with disabilities have the same needs as all members of the community:

• An opportunity to receive nurturing and care from other members.
• An opportunity to freely participate in activities of spiritual growth and development.
• An opportunity to share their talents and abilities.

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Understanding Is the Key

Did you know there are over eight million people in this country that have a developmental disability? Some examples of developmental disabilities are mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism, or other conditions that affect a person's ability to perform certain activities.

Increasingly, people with developmental disabilities are living in the community rather than in institutions. This means that your church congregation may have individuals with disabilities and families with disabilities.

Research shows that coping with a disability is a very difficult job for a family. Families experience many emotions, such as fear, guilt, anger and despair. From these feelings, social and emotional isolation can result. Support has been demonstrated to be the #1 tool to help families and individuals cope with the many changes and emotions they face.

Faith communities and/ or church congregations are means of providing support to individuals and families. As people with developmental disabilities are supported through relationship, fellowship, and shared faith, the individual, family and entire faith community benefit.

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Volunteers - A Vital Part of Every Faith Community

One of the most important ways to become a part of a community is to be able to participate in the group's activities. In a faith community, one way in which this develops is through volunteering. The following is a list of volunteer experiences that are possible for those members of your faith community who have disabilities. Feel free to adapt these activities as needed and discuss them with your new volunteers.

• During you "coffee hour", utilize volunteers to help serve food and drink.
• Utilize volunteer to greet people as they enter the building.
• Volunteers can be acolytes or help light candles in the service.
• Many faith communities collect offerings (the volunteers can be collectors) alone or with another person.
• Some communities utilize volunteers to give prayers or testimonies (persons with disabilities could participate in this way alone or with an interpreter).
• Volunteers could be utilized to read stories to the small children.

We invite you to be creative and talk with the members of your faith community to continue this brief list of ways people with disabilities can take an active part in the life of your community ...Through volunteering.

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Learning Suggestions for Church School Classes

Children: Under 5 Years of Age:

• Children this age notice differences between themselves and others in an objective way. They are learning about themselves (I have brown eyes) and other (you have blue), and they place no value on their observations.
• Talk about how children are unique, and how they have similarities and differences.
• Have coloring pages that show children with disabilities.

Children: 1st Grade - 8th Grade:

• Talk about individuality and the uniqueness of each person.
1. Have the children write down 3-5 things about themselves that make them special (these characteristics can include personality , activities they participate in, physical characteristics, beliefs).
2. Have each child in the group share one thing they really like about each person in the class.
3. Discuss how this activity focussed on abilities and strengths rather than disabilities.
• Read story from "Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul", pages 90-92.
• Talk about specific disabilities.
• Give the children some ideas about how to talk to people with disabilities.

Remember: We're all PEOPLE first!

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What Congregations Can Do

• Provide emotional support and encouragement to family members.
• Actively encourage people with developmental disabilities to join their church or synagogue.
• Become aware of special education programs and respite services in your community.
• Sponsor a congregation-wide "Awareness Sunday / Sabbath" in the month of March.
• Offer your hall or building to parent groups for meetings or a day care center.
• Solicit volunteers from your congregation to provide needed transportation for a person with a disability.
• Have individuals with developmental disabilities participate in ALL religious and social functions to their maximum extent.
• Encourage youth groups to sponsor a car wash along with members of a local group, with proceeds going back to the church to purchase equipment to improve accessibility.
• Give a talk or sermon promoting community assistance of people with developmental disabilities.

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For More Information

Religion and Disability Program
National Organization on Disability (NOD)
910 16th Street NW
Washington DC 20006

Metropolitan Council On Developmental Disabilities
821 E Admiral Blvd
PO Box 4125577
Kansas City, MO 64141
(816) 889-3422
(816) 883-3326 TDD
(816) 889-3325 Fax
mcdd1@kcnet.com

Prepared by Metropolitan Council on Developmental Disabilities. Paid for through a grant from Ewing M. Kauffman Fund and Administration on Developmental Disabilities.

Our thanks to the A R C of Oregon for providing the model for this series of brochures.

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