PARClife and P-CEP have started a partnership where students who are earning a certificate of completion participate with a local non-profit organization.

Mari McFarland, the founder of PARClife, helps special needs students by incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy into the program through multiple activities including making art, baking and going into the community.

PARClife, located in the PARC building on 650 Church Street, Plymouth, that was previously used as the original Plymouth High School and later Central Middle School in the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools district. PARC, the Plymouth Arts & Recreation Complex, moved into the structure in 2015.

The idea of a partnership started when P-CEP teacher Paul Nolta, founder and director of PARClife, Mari McFarland, and director of operations of PARClife, Will McFarland, shared the idea with Salem teacher Kayla Latin, the transition coordinator at P-CEP.

The Michigan Rehabilitation Services, a state agency that helps provide for individuals with disabilities, funds the partnership.

 The participating P-CEP students started going to PARClife regularly on January 24.

With each visit, the students are trained in tasks to assist area businesses, allowing both the students and the businesses to benefit. 

The training includes “video modeling” where students watch a video of a task being modeled, and then they have the opportunity to perform the task themselves.

Students receive close supervision, but there’s room for developing relationships. “Our ratio is three to one, so [a teacher] would be working a little more closely with a small group, but that seems to be a lot more fun. It also gives people a chance, kind of makes the space for friendships to be able to form while we’re doing all of these things. Then they also get a chance to see other people perform the skill,” said Mari McFarland.

After the training, the students are taken to practice the skill in the community.

On Dec. 13, the students practiced saying “Happy Holidays” and then strolled around Kellogg Park to exchange greetings with people who were visiting the “Festival of Trees.”

“We went out into downtown Plymouth, and they had the Central Market, which had Christmas trees, and everything’s decorated, and they have some food trucks and things like that,” says Ellie McFarland, tweens and teens coordinator.

Then the students come back from the community. “Their coats are brought down to the main level again, and they come in from the community, and then, you know, we say goodbye and out to the buses,” said Mari McFarland.

The P-CEP group has the most learners the PARClife staff have had in a program. “I mean, summer camp, we’d have like a mass of 20 or 22, but this was around 40, so, it’s a lot, but it’s nothing we can’t handle,” said Joe McFarland, young adults program manager.

The PARClife staff has been talking with the P-CEP students’ teachers to create activities that are fun and incorporate therapy. They have been looking for community outing opportunities such as making telephone calls.

The Good Fat Company which makes healthy, low-fat, and low-sugar desserts is one business in partnership with PARClife. Both organizations are housed in the PARC building located in downtown Plymouth. The students participating in PARClife walk from the second to the first floor of PARC every Wednesday to help the food company pack their desserts.

Joe McFarland and another PARClife member are still planning P-CEP’s next trip to PARClife.“I actually was thinking about planning to meet with the Good Fat Company that we work with on Wednesdays. Then, you know, they can get a little sample of some of the Good Fat,” said Joe McFarland. 

A plan to expand the program to more students is in the works. Latin said, “The goal is to eventually spread it out to our students who are on the diploma track receiving special education services.”