The Cromwell Center for Disabilities Awareness has been featured in many newspaper and magazine articles and on television and radio. This section contains excerpts from the print media.

About our 2011 Dinner & Auction, held June 23rd, 2011 in South Portland, ME

When I met Cromwell instructor Hilda Wiley during the silent auction, she told me about what she sees when working in the classroom with students. "It gives kids a sense that disabilities are common and differences are good," Wiley told me. "They come away thinking, 'I'm not alone.' Starting the dialogue about disabilities can help potential bullies" realize they know many people with disabilities.

Susan Evans, Dwight Evans' wife, told me how impressed she is by the Cromwell Center's programs after she and her husband witnessed a class in action at the Portland YMCA. "We went into the classroom and saw how the kids were interacting and the way they were thinking about these things," Susan Evans told me. "What the Cromwell Center does is so important. I wish more companies and schools would incorporate this into their programs. There are so many people who've been hurt by ignorance."

Saco-based psychologist Francoise Paradis told me about her work with children who've been bullied. "They have a lot of anxiety and it's hard for them to trust," Paradis told me. "When kids are educated in a way that builds empathy they're less likely to become bullies." Avery Yale Kamila / Portland Press Herald, June 2011

About the Student Disabilities Awareness Program

"The Cromwell Center program demonstrates to kids that people with disabilities are capable. . . . Many of the schools that participate see the Cromwell Center work as part of their anti-bullying programs. . . . The instructors calmly invite any kind of commentary from students . . . because they want to hear what the children are thinking and allow them to say whatever is on their minds. Port City Life, April 2008.

"The Program allows students to learn to work together and explore how they feel about classmates and other people with all types of disabilities -- learning, emotional and behavioral, developmental, and physical. . . . 'I learned don't make fun of people just because they are different,' one student said." . . . Principal Thomas Hood remarked, "The program targets disabilities as the differentiator, which is critical to the school's environment. Approximately 22% of our students have some level of recognized disability. The statewide average is slightly less than 20%. " Lewiston Sun Journal, April 2, 2007.

"The Cromwell Center represents everything we want in Maine -- an innovative and unique way of doing things, new and different ideas that have a positive impact on our children and that will help to make Maine an even better and kinder place for all people with all kinds of disabilities." The Bangor Daily News, June 28, 2006 (quoting remarks of Governor John Baldacci).

"The program gave students the opportunity to explore what disabilities mean and how we treat others on a day-to-day basis." The Lewiston Sun Journal, May 13, 2005.

"The shaping of values and ideas about others begins at a very young age. The center's . . . mission is to cultivate more sensitivity and acceptance towards people living with disabilities. . . . The program creates an interactive environment consisting of exercises intended to stimulate the students’ awareness of their perception process and about the concept of differences, and what it’s like to feel different from others." One in Five (published by Alpha One Enterprises), Winter 2005.

"It was very powerful to watch the children's understanding grow as they recognized the importance of treating others with kindness and valuing their own abilities and those of their peers. Another important component of the program is that it is age appropriate . . .and conducted in a way that makes children comfortable to talk about their own struggles or disabilities." The York Weekly News, December 6, 2004.

"Students are learning everyone is good at something, including people with disabilities. . . . The program] illustrates that even though people with disabilities are the same in some ways, they are different in many ways, too. And different isn't wrong." The Kennebec Journal, September 23, 2004.

"A new school program uses unusual methods to teach students to avoid biases against disabled people. . . . Schools are responding strongly to the program." The Portland Press Herald, September 18, 2004.

About the Library Collections Program

"The program books collection, which has drawn immediate interest from patrons, is already circulating quickly . . . The more information you have, the more inclusive environment you can promote . . . the books speak to a library's core mission -- providing materials for everyone." The School Library Journal.

"Ordinarily libraries don't have the time and money to acquire specialized titles like the program books; it's hard enough, directors say, to keep up with the mainstream collection of novels and reference books. . . . In library business, helping one person with a very difficult or unusual subject makes a lot of difference." The Portland Press Herald.

"A new program for disabled children and their parents is stocking library shelves across Maine with books about understanding and caring for kids with special needs. . . . The books will give people a better understanding about raising and educating disabled children. . . . The reaction to the books has been overwhelmingly positive." The Bangor Daily News.

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