ASSISTANCE TO SCHOOLS AND TRAININGS

OpenMinds is proud to have helped three additional schools by reinforcing and enhancing their support services for students with special needs. This brings our total number of schools helped since 2012 to 25.

  • Khaled bin Al Waleed Al Horj Makassed school: The refurbishment of the sensory room offered by OpenMinds.
  • Shouf National College: The refurbishment of the School Learning Support Department.
  • Heritage College: The award of eight active panels ensuring better learning opportunities for all students.

OpenMinds continued its partnership for the third year with Trait D’Union, a resources and orientation center. Trait D’Union assists mainstream public/private schools by providing training and support for the implementation of inclusive practices, enabling the schools to handle special needs students. Thus far, 15 schools have been trained.

The results are encouraging and show that Trait D’ Union’s intervention alongside the teachers is fruitful and helping children make important progress.

In a snapshot, below are some of the results:

200
Teachers Trained
77
Training Sessions
174
Follow-up Visits
346
Students Targeted
22
Awareness Sessions
939
Participants in the Awareness Sessions
1185
Objectives set in classes
756
Objectives were acquired
408
Objectives were in progress
21
Objectives not acquired

 

In line with our mission to further knowledge in education on special needs, OpenMinds carried out a training for 30 teachers, administrative staff and coordinators at Khaled bin Al Waleed Al Horj Makassed raising awareness on learning disabilities and ADHD through the ‘Universal Design for Learning course with Ms. Lara El Khatib.


Noting the scarcity of certified ABA therapists in Lebanon and their availability to work with students locally, OpenMinds embarked on a program created towards increasing the number of such essential professionals locally. As a result, OpenMinds facilitated and financed the training of 6 students in achieving the mission of taking the Board-Certified Behaviors Analyst Exam Certification. By December 2020, 4 of them will be BCBA certified.

Testimonials

Wednesday, January 23, 2019