TORONTO – The Centre for Dreams is a place where all things are possible.
“Centre for Dreams is a day program for adults with developmental disabilities,” Michelle Del Carmen, Executive Director of The Centre for Dreams said.
“The program actually started – it will be 23 years this year – by my mom, for my older brother John who has a developmental disability,” she said. “Once he reached the age of 21, there was no place for him to go.”
Because of a mother’s dream for her son, 35 clients attend The Centre for Dreams, participating in educational programs and social skills training with the hopes of integrating them confidently into the community.
“We’ve definitely learned over the years that the traditional style of teaching does not necessarily work for everyone,” Del Carmen said. “We’ve adopted differential learning techniques, we use a number of different therapies.”
Most recently, the “Simply Beautiful Collection” was added to the daily curriculum. Each hand-crafted piece tells a remarkable story of determination, passion, and love created by extraordinary individuals.
Del Carmen said the labels that are put on people won’t go away, and that’s fine, but instead we should be looking beyond the labels that society has put on people with developmental disabilities.
“We say that we’re the cause without a cure and it’s human nature to want to fix things, to make things better, but we don’t want anybody to make our guys better, they are who they are,” she said. “We want you to embrace them.”
* Check out the Simply Beautiful Collection on Facebook
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