A TOUCH OF UNDERSTANDING INC

The major goals of ATOU are:
• To educate children and adults to appreciate, rather than fear, differences in others.
• To raise the level of understanding and respect in school environments and beyond.
• To improve the learning environment and help all children reach their potential and goals.
• To have our school students, who will soon be adults, internalize this knowledge and understanding to enhance their future relationships, careers and personal experiences.
• To improve the lives of individuals with disabilities.
• To provide a safe place, a feeling of belonging and a sense of purpose for our volunteers and our Youth F.O.R.C.E. members.
• To fully include people with disabilities in community life.

Five interwoven programs comprise our character-building disability-awareness efforts to encourage acceptance and respect for all individuals, especially those with disabilities.
IN-SCHOOL DISABILITY-AWARENESS WORKSHOP: A powerful 3-hour workshop providing hands-on opportunities for students to get a glimpse into the lives of individuals with disabilities. The workshop, which includes activities and opportunities for students to interact with volunteers who have disabilities, builds empathy and ignites respect on school campuses and beyond. ATOU is helping to create respectful school cultures where the mistreatment of others is not accepted or tolerated by the students themselves.
ATOU YOUTH F.O.R.C.E. (“Friends Offering Respect ~ Creating Empowerment"): The F.O.R.C.E. increases the wellness, self-respect and self-direction of persons with disabilities by:
• Bringing youth of all abilities together to share in fun, educational and character-building activities.
• Fostering bonds of friendship between youth of all levels of ability.
• Providing leadership training and mentoring by using youth/adult partnerships implement its activities.
• Modeling and encouraging inclusion of persons with disabilities.
This fully-inclusive group provides a sense of belonging and purpose for all members.
SPIRIT OF INCLUSION: Like the in-school workshop, this hands-on training for adults provides personal experience to foster emotional accessibility and inclusion the workplace and for clients/customers. Participants acquire skills to more comfortably interact with individuals with disabilities.
The 3 – 4 hour diversity training:
• demystifies the challenges brought on by disabilities
• promotes employment of individuals with disabilities
• makes workplaces more inclusive for existing employees with disabilities
• assists schools/companies/governmental agencies to successfully address the needs of their students/clients/customers who have disabilities.
• allows our community to benefit from the abilities and commitment of our residents with disabilities.
DARK MEALS:
Participants gain understanding, appreciation and respect for individuals who are blind and for their skills, by eating a meal with their peers under blindfold, guided by an ATOU member who is blind.
VOLUNTEER PROGRAM: ATOU provides an opportunity for persons with disabilities to serve the community as part of an inclusive team reducing physical and emotional isolation and providing a sense of purpose and a rich social network.

ATOU has delivered its in-school workshop to hundreds of schools and organizations in the greater Sacramento region and nearby counties over the past 26 years, reaching more than 126,000 students.
Judy Holsinger, former Executive Director Sacramento County Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) stated, “A Touch of Understanding has a proven record of improving social interactions for children with disabilities in the Greater Sacramento area. Children who were otherwise isolated are now more involved in activities and social groups. A Touch of Understanding helps make full inclusion a reality in our schools."
This statement is supported by the results of a three-year evaluation project completed by ATOU in 2012, under the guidance of independent evaluation consultant, Dr. Christina Borbely. The pre- and post-workshop surveys are based on the well-established CATCH survey (Chedoke-McMaster attitudes Towards Children with Handicaps) preferred for its multi-dimensional assessment of feelings and behavioral intentions toward and beliefs about people with disabilities. The total sample included 778 matched pre/post-test pairs. More than two thirds of the students (70.1%) demonstrated overall improvement in feeling, intentions and beliefs associated with people with a disability.

A total of 126,113 students have participated in the workshop since its inception in 1990. Currently, each year approximately 10,000 students participate in more than 100 schools in Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, Solano, El Dorado, Calaveras, Marin and Nevada counties in Northern California. The number of ATOU Youth F.O.R.C.E. participants has increased from 10 in 2009, to more than 200 in 2019. The Volunteer Team continues to grow. We currently have 75 volunteers, 39 of whom have disabilities. Our evaluations show that each of these interwoven programs are increasing knowledge and understanding and promoting acceptance and respect on school campuses and in our communities. These efforts are stimulating true full inclusion of individuals with disabilities into community life. We continue our outreach efforts to serve all local schools and provide an ever-increasing circle of service into the full Sacramento Region. ATOU’s team of volunteers and staff have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic by creating programs to accommodate the needs of students and a variety of school scenarios, following local, state and CDC guidelines. The first program is our Virtual Speakers Panel, where students interact with individuals with disabilities via Zoom or another platform. Speakers share about their life, disability, and the tools they use to accomplish their goals. Students are given the opportunity to ask honest questions which may be deemed inappropriate in other settings. By having the opportunity to ask these questions, fear and misunderstanding give way to acceptance and inclusion. The other program is our Hybrid Program. This is a program in which equipment (wheelchairs, white mobility canes, Braille, and materials to understand learning differences and autism) is delivered to schools prior to the workshop. During the workshop, speakers interact with students and staff guide students via Zoom through hands-on activities using equipment that was delivered to the school. ATOU also will provide the in-person program when CDC guidelines allow. We will continue our efforts to garner sustainable funding to allow more children/youth and their families as well as volunteers with disabilities to participate in our programs.