Jonathan Barry - Ambasadorial Scholor
speaks at Heston & Isleworth.

District 1130 - West London


Updated 14 Feb2008

12th February 2008.

We were delighted to welcome Jonathan Barry to our club on Feb 12th and were treated to a truly professional and inspiring presentation on his work in establishing the charity HOPE in North Carolina.

Our President Elect, Fred Fox is seen here exchanging Rotary Banners with Jonathan

 

Jonathan Barry

About Me

I am in London where I am studying for my Master of Science in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. I am very excited to be studying as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar and look forward to keeping Rotarians in both my home (7570) and host (1130) districts updated on my time abroad.

Helping to Overcome Physical Expectations, or HOPE for short, is a growing network of collegiate Service Chapters  in the USA dedicated to working with children with disabilities in local special needs schools. Through weekly one-on-one mentorship, HOPE volunteers, affectionately called Hopesters, help children with special needs exceed goals and objectives identified on their children’s Individualized Education Plans (IEPs).

 
After beginning to volunteer with children with special needs at The Children’s Center for the Physically Disabled, a special needs school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Wake Forest University student Jonathan R. Barry (’07) encountered a low number of collegiate volunteers at The Children’s Center. Inspired by the children he met, however, Jonathan noted that a sense of optimism and motivation encouraged him to return with each visit, and as his encounters with the students of The Children’s Center increased, he developed an innovative idea to increase volunteerism at the school—he sought to fill an observed need.

Accordingly, Jonathan informed Mike Britt, Executive Director of The Children’s Center, about his initiative to form a “volunteering liaison” between Wake Forest University undergraduates and individual students at The Children’s Center. Together, Jonathan and Mike collaborated to form the unique program. Aside from general volunteering, Jonathan and Mike pledged to give HOPE some more substance which would promote and sustain active engagement with children with special needs from college students. Thus, HOPE’s central mission resonates with a dual purpose: to provide direct mentorship of children with disabilities and to foster indirect knowledge and respect for persons with disabilities from the college student population

For more information on HOPE, visit their website by clicking the link.

http://www.hopevolunteers.org/WhoWeAre.aspx

  
 

                          BACK TO 'BREAKING NEWS'