Catalyst Grant Final Report
“Program Series or Adults with Developmental Disabilities”
Please provide a brief narrative explaining your project and its outcomes.
Between March-December 2024, Fayetteville Free Library hosted 12 programs for adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities and their mentors. We paid experts for their time to lead specific specialized, accessible activities. We sought input prior to holding these programs from the disability community to assess their needs and interests. This resulted in us offering a wide range of hands-on programs including art workshops, yoga, qi gong, karate, balloon tying, chocolate making, drum circle, and an Animal Myths program with the Zoo.
In total, we had 290 attendances at these 12 programs. We received extremely positive feedback from both mentors and mentees who attended on how well the sessions were organized, and how much social and emotional benefit they got out of the sessions. Many stated how helpful it was to have a time to relax, socialize, and try something new.
What is the most remarkable accomplishment or finding of your project?
The most remarkable accomplishment of our project was that most of the 12 sessions were full as far as attendance was concerned. We capped pre-registration for each session at 20 mentees with their accompanying mentors, due to space considerations and so that each participant would have a positive experience. Almost every session (except for the two in December that fell around the holidays) had full registration lists.
We knew that a need for specialized social and recreational programming geared for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities existed, but we were gratified to see the response was even greater than we anticipated.
How did your project differ from what you originally proposed?
We had initially proposed hosting 2 programs per month for 6 months. Instead, we hosted 1 program/month from March-November, and 3 programs in December.
Please provide a brief summary of your evaluation activities and/or results, if available.
We collected attendance data at each event. The results were as follows:
- March- Yoga with Vyana Yoga- 30
- April- Art with Pam & Iver Johnson- 28
- May- Karate with Rande Lawrence- 36
- June- Balloon Tying with Jeff the Magic Man- 25
- July- Art with Pam & Iver Johnson- 28
- Aug- Drum Circle with DrumQuest- 23
- Sept- Animal Myths with Rosemond Gifford Zoo- 30
- Oct- Chocolate Making & Tasting with Sweet on Chocolate- 29
- Nov- Qigong with Katrin Naumann- 22
- Dec- Winter Art with Pam & Iver Johnson- 27
- Dec- Yoga with Vyana Yoga- 5
- Dec- Yoga with Vyana Yoga- 7
Total-290
We also collected anecdotal feedback by tracking comments received by staff during or following these programs. Comments our staff collected included the following:
“Thank you Fayetteville Library for your wonderful programs for adults with disabilities!”
“A patron, Tosca, just let me know how pleased she was with the programs for Adults with disabilities. Her son attends and enjoyed the zoo program and also is excited about the chocolate tasting. She said that demographic usually gets overlooked and she really appreciates the FFL.”
“Pamela, who taught the Art Program for Adults with Developmental Disabilities event, said that we are by far the friendliest library in the area. Also, she said that many of the participants expressed their appreciation and really enjoyed the event.”
Finally, we issued a follow-up survey in December upon the conclusion of the series. We sent the survey to the email addresses we had on file for all attendees. We received 15 survey responses.
We asked people to rate the programs they attended, scoring them between 1-10. The average program rating was 9.26, indicating a very high level of satisfaction with the programs.
We also asked individuals to give written feedback on the programs. We received responses such as:
- Very impressed with how well these things are handled.
- Art program was truly enjoyable
- Karate instructor was very engaging.
- Well organized and co-ordinated
We also asked people what outcomes they experienced from attending the program. 12 of 15 indicated “socialization;” 11 indicated “fun and enjoyment,” and 9 indicated “learning new skills/being exposed to new interests.” One wrote in “relaxation and better concentration.”
Anything else you’d like us to know?
We so appreciated the funding to conduct this series; we have received so much more positive feedback from the instructors, mentors, mentees and families than this evaluation captures – this has been such a win/win for all involved that we are now seeking a new funding source to continue to the series into 2025 and beyond. Thank you!
Leah Kraus
Assistant Director, Fayetteville Free Library
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