Special Needs
Special Needs Ministry serves our children and youth in a way that is welcoming and inclusive of them and their needs in order to provide programs where they can grow in their faith and bring their gifts and talents to our church community.
Special Needs
Special Needs Ministry serves our children and youth in a way that is welcoming and inclusive of them and their needs in order to provide programs where they can grow in their faith and bring their gifts and talents to our church community.
Welcome! We are glad that you have found our Special Needs Ministry here at LOPC and are looking forward to partnering with you and your family by providing some respite and social opportunities in our community for your child to thrive.
In the past few years, we have seen a growing need to welcome in and care for families who have children, youth, and adults with special needs. Our desire for families and their children/youth who have special needs is that they will find a loving and inclusive faith community that supports them in their role as parents, grandparents, and caregivers.
We welcome you to participate in any of our weekly worship and spiritual formation programming, we also have three additional opportunities for families with children who have special needs to participate in. We hope that we can help provide some additional respite, support and social opportunities for you and your family.
If you are visiting LOPC for the first time and have questions about the Special Needs Ministry and programs, please contact us. We will provide you with the intake form and schedule a time to meet with to talk about the needs you have for your child/youth and family during your visit to LOPC.
Current Program Offerings:
Friday Fun Night
Usually offered on the first Friday of the month, Friday Fun Night is for children, ages 5-22. This is an opportunity for parents to drop off all the children in your family for a fun-filled evening of arts and crafts, movies, recreational play and games, and fellowship. We strive to have a one-on-one buddy for each child. Advance registration is required.
FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE
Usually offered on on the 3rd Thursday of the month from September through May, Friendship Circle is for youth with special needs who are freshman in high school through young adult transition programs (9th grade through 22 years old).
This is an evening of fellowship with art and crafts, games, a pizza snack, and other social activities. We also have buddies from local high schools and colleges joining us. We ask a parent, guardian, or caregiver to join their youth the first time that they attend Friendship Circle to help them navigate this social setting. If your youth has an aide during their school day, we ask that a parent, guardian or caregiver join them at all of the Friendship Circle gatherings.
Sunday morning Buddies
Sunday morning buddies is for children with special needs that would like to join their families during Sunday morning worship services. We can provide a buddy for your child to participate in any part of the worship service or our Sunday morning spiritual formation programs.
To arrange a buddy for your child or youth on any Sunday, please contact us in advance. We provide buddies by assignment in order to make sure your child is paired with the buddy that fits best with their needs.
To participate in our special Needs programming:
Fill out our family registration form and intake form so that we can learn more about your child (mandatory).
Please RSVP and register for each event through our LOPC website at www.lopc.org/registrations. Please note that RSVPing for an event does not guarantee a spot as we need to make sure that we can accommodate each child with our volunteer buddy participation. We try to confirm your child’s participation by the first part of the week of the event.
STAFF
- Jaime Polson, Pastor of Family Ministries and Executive Ministry Leadership
- Susan Wentworth, Director of Children’s Ministry
Resources
- Family Registration Form
- Special Needs Intake Form
- RSVP form for
- · Friday Fun Night
- · Friendship Circle