Katelyn Meeks, MSHE, CMC, CHES®
Practical Experience
Center for Independent Living of North Central Florida
I completed my Health Education and Behavior internship at the Center for Independent Living of North Central Florida (CILNCF). The center provides services to individuals with disabilities, including interpreting, independent living skills courses, vocational services, ParaTransit, High School High Tech, ramp construction, and phone distribution, among other services. If there is a service that the center doesn't provide, staff members work hard to find a way to provide it at little to no cost to consumers.
My main role was to assist with the Independent Living Skills classes, which included Youth in Transition (U-2), Peer Support, Independent Living Skills, and Lunch Bunch. The Independent Skills class occurs on Tuesdays and includes individuals of varying disabilities who learn about skills needed to live as independently as possible. Youth in Transition is a similar course on Thursday mornings, but is geared towards ages 16-24, which addresses similar topics, but also includes topics such as employment, graduation, and college. Lunch Bunch follows and individuals from both classes come together to have social interactions and hear positive news within the world. Peer Support is the final Thursday course and involves Mark Brisbane discussing motivational topics such as having a good attitude, advocating for yourself, and not taking things for granted.
I was also assigned an advocacy project, in which I developed a 20 hour advocacy course to be implemented within the center. Additionally, I was afforded the opportunity to attend community outreach events and work with a diverse group of people each day. This internship was a phenomenal experience and provided the opportunity to experience different aspects of health education, from planning, implementing and evaluating the advocacy course, to interacting with consumers and being a versatile member of the center.
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Below, I've included several examples of projects and events that I've participated in.
Community Outreach Event
Living Well with MS
During the first two weeks of my internship, Addison, Jessica and I tabled at the Living Well with MS event held by the Multiple Sclerosis Society. This was our first time doing community outreach for the Center for Independent Living. We got to meet so many individuals with multiple sclerosis and give them information about the center. Many said they had not heard of the center and were excited to know about the resource in their community! I really enjoy community outreach as it gives the opportunity to interact with individuals of so many different backgrounds and inform them of resources available to them.
Making Good Decisions Presentation
This is the first presentation I gave for the center. I used information from the center, along with research, to create the information in the PowerPoint. Aya and I presented this to group A of Youth in Transition (U-2) on February 2, 2017. This was a big learning experience for me, as the presentation was long but still did not last as long as we would have liked. I had to adapt and come up with additional activities for us to do during that time. It was rewarding to see everyone participating in the activities and see that they were having a good time. I added more to the PowerPoint to be sure we would last the entire length of U-2 the next week. Trevor and I then presented it to group B on February 9, 2017. The students enjoyed the presentation and were very receptive to the information. It was interesting to go through the process of planning the course and presenting it to the consumers, and getting Terri's feedback was really helpful.
Heart Health Presentation
This is the presentation I prepared for Heart Health month in February. It was the first presentation that I planned for ILS and I did all of my own research. The month of February focuses on heart health, so Aya planned an adaptive zumba class to go along with my heart health presentation. Creating this presentation was a learning experience for me. I was taught to keep PowerPoints simple and put few words on them, but the coordinator, Terri, prefers to put more words on them. In health education courses, we are taught to write everything out in the speaker notes and put few words on the actual slides, but Terri explained that the other centers will also use these PowerPoints and may not know how to work the speaker notes feature. In addition, the Ocala center uses an interpreter and it benefits her to have as many words as possible on the slide. Some of the center’s consumers may also prefer to read from the slides. While both ways are correct, I had to adapt to creating presentations the way Terri prefers, as it is best for the center and their consumers.
Trevor and I presented this on February 7, 2017. The class benefited from it a lot and had a lot to contribute regarding their own lifestyle choices and what they will change to improve their heart.
Stomp the Swamp
Stomp the Swamp is an annual event held in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and hosted by the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD). Participants can run or walk the stadium and all money raised benefits UF CARD. We tabled at the event, along with many other organizations. It was great to see some of the resources in our community that benefit individuals with disabilities, specifically autism, come together. Some of the center's consumers were at the event as well and many came by our table. A lot of people were informed on what the CILNCF does and said they would come by or refer people they know who can benefit.
Advocacy Course
As part of a 20-hour advocacy course, I developed units 5, 7 and 8. The course pilot test will be in March and the program implementation will follow. It will be presented both at the center and within high school programs. Each unit contains a presentation, as well as interactive games, videos, worksheets, questionnaires, and quizzes to supplement the student's learning experience.  The goal is to empower students, teach them to advocate for themselves, learn their rights, and transition from high school to the community, whether that be higher education, the workforce, or something else.
Unit 1: Defining Self-Advocacy
Unit 1, Defining Self-Advocacy, was the first unit we completed for the advocacy course. I worked with Emily Wood and Meghan Gaitens on this unit to assure that the other units we each worked on individually were of similar content and format. This unit goes over the basics of what self-advocacy is and why it is important.
Unit 5: Setting SMART Goals
This unit was created in late January. It focuses goal setting, why we need goals, what SMART goals are and tips for goal setting. It also includes group activities, individual activities, videos and supplemental journal entries. This goal setting unit is key to the advocacy course as goals are necessary to know where you are going, what you want to do in life, and what you're striving for and will need to advocate for yourself within.
Unit 7: Developing an Action Plan
This unit discusses some of the big differences between high school and university or the workforce. In high school, students with disabilities are found and given the accommodations they need. Many students aren't aware of the planning and work that goes into their accommodations or the differences they will be faced with in college or at a job. For example, at college, students are responsible for contacting the disability resource center on their own and requesting the services that will help them perform well. The unit goes over the steps a student should take when transitioning to either university or the workforce.
Unit 8: Self-Advocacy Resources in the Community
This unit is designed to focus on resources available in the community for self-advocacy. One big focus of the unit is Summary of Performance (SOP) forms, as these give students the opportunity to sum up their goals, necessary accommodations, and scores from high school. This helps students be aware of their needs, successes, strengths and weaknesses to prepare them for their future endeavors.
FTRI Phone Distribution
On February 18, 2017, Jessica, Addison and I went to the Villages to register community members for FTRI (Florida Telecommunications Relay, Inc. ) telephones.  These phones are accessible for individuals with hearing disabilities, as well as for those with vision problems. They have larger buttons and become louder than the average phone.  There are both cordless and corded land lines currently and one is able to run off of BlueTooth for those who do not have a landline phone service. They are given for free to the community as everyone in Florida's phone bill has a small fee to allow for the funding of these phones.Â
We met two CIL employees from the Ocala office, Kevin and Brandon, who work in distributing the phones. I spent some time at the table in the front, but the majority of my time was spent in the back actually distributing the phones. We would find qualified individuals at the front room with Kevin, who would confirm that they qualify for the phones. They qualified if they passed a short hearing test and have not had the phones before, as you are only allowed one per individual. We then moved the person to the back room where they tested the phones and found the one that was right for them. Brandon would show them the features of tall the phones and get the settings fitted to that individual's specific needs.  I mostly helped Brandon in the back room and we gave out 8 phones. I filled out a lot of the paperwork for him, as he is legally blind and he uses a program on his laptop to enlarge everything, but the internet was not working so he needed more assistance. I helped several people choose which phone fit their needs best and I helped one couple exchange their former FTRI phone for a new and more updated version.Â
It was really interesting to learn about these phones and how easy it is to acquire one. Â The phones benefit so many and everyone who received one was really excited and grateful.
Recycling Presentation
This recycling presentation was created with the intention of being presented in November, National Recycling Month. Changes in the schedule occurred and this presentation was presented in March to ILS to encourage more recycling. The center got new recycling bins to make recycling easier for the consumers and we explained how easy recycling is, along with its many benefits.
U-2 Food and Culture Presentation
For Youth in Transition, I created a PowerPoint presentation to introduce more cooking techniques. We discussed cooking the previous week and needed a new spin on cooking so they did not get the same lecture before they cooked pancakes. My presentation begins with some cooking tips and tricks, then moves into food and culture. .It discusses 5 countries and the food they are most known for. Hopefully this will expand their interests and encourage them to try new foods from different cultures. I then created a worksheet to quiz them on the information
Worksheet
This directs to the worksheet I created to enforce the teaching from the PowerPoint.