Program: Pizza with a Catch
Human Awareness, Social
Description:
This is a really cool program that lets residents interact while at the same time dealing
with physical disabilities. Great Awareness program!
Instructions/Things Needed:
Pizza (hint: Get it donated) or other food
Wheelchairs, Blindfolds, Crutches, etc.. (Check with the Student Health Center)
A room/area in the building that is unfriendly disability-wise.
Advertise free pizza to residents, giving them a time and a place to meet. Generally, you
want someplace fairly close to the place you will be eating at. I've found that if you
don't tell residents about the activity, you have a better turnout and they will usually
stay to see what's going on.
When your group arrives, explain to them that this is Pizza-with-a-catch, and they will be
assigned a disability (i.e. blindness, no hands, crutches, wheelchairs, etc) and assign
some people to help the "physically challenged." Explain they will have to make
their way to the designated area and then keep their disability while they eat (or try to
eat) the pizza.
Afterwards, (when everbody seems to have had enough!) tell them to remove their
disabilities and facilitate a short discussion about what just happened, what they felt,
problems they encountered, etc. Those who were not disabled but helped will probably have
input as well - some of them may not have known how to help out a disabled person, and
this could happen in real life.
That's all!
Other Considerations:
- This is a great program to take pictures of
- Generally, I've used around 30-35 residents, it works well!
- You can check with the health center or other organizations around campus for literature
to pass out.
- If a disabled person happens to attend the program, they would be an invaluable resource
- but don't push them to attend.Name: Richie C.
School: University of Texas at Austin
email: [email removed] |
