Service Learning

Giant Steps students are baking and selling dog biscuits to raise funds for The Shannon Foundation, a farm in St. Clair, Missouri that cares for abused and unadoptable pets and farm animals. Learn more at www.theshannonfoundation.org  Students also are collecting old towels and comforters for the farm. In June, Giant Steps will spend a day at the farm, helping with clean-up and pet care.

Contributing to the community enriches anybody's life, and Giant Steps students are no exception! Our students participate in new and ongoing community service projects each year. Not only do students derive satisfaction from working for the benefit of others, but they also learn a great deal from the hands-on experience, vocational training and social interaction opportunities these project provide.

Giant Steps' Community Service program began in 2002 when staff attended a seminar led by national service learning consultant Cathryn Kaye. Giant Steps teachers designed service activities to augment the academic program, and therapists worked with students to build the social and vocational skills they would need to go out into the community and be of service to others.

The first service site was Delmar Gardens West, a retirement center right next door to Giant Steps. Students learned about the life cycle of plants, decorated flower pots, and cultivated flowering plants with the assistance of high school volunteers. When the plants were ready, students delivered them to residents of Delmar Gardens.  Later that week, students and their families planted a flower garden at the center. Students visited the residents with small gifts on Valentines Day and Halloween. A National Service Learning Grant helped to support the Delmar Gardens activity, and the project is featured in the Cathryn Kaye's Complete Guide to Service Learning, 2004, Free Spirit Press.

Giant Steps students continue to help out at Delmar Gardens. Several times a week, they deliver mail and newspapers to patients in their rooms.   Gardening on a larger scale was the theme of Giant Steps' next service project. Students and staff cleaned out an abandoned greenhouse foundation on the school grounds and built a vegetable garden. Produce is used in cooking classes, where students practice functional math, reading and daily living skills. In 2005, the National Gardening Association and Home Depot recognized Giant Steps "Gardening for Students with Autism" project with a financial support grant and a national recognition award.

In 2006, Giant Steps set up a mail processing center and began to process direct mailing projects for churches, businesses and local nonprofits. Students are adept at collating, folding, envelope stuffing, assembling, labeling and organizing.

The St. Louis Area Foodbank welcomed our students as volunteers starting in 2007. Once each month, we visit the foodbank to spend a morning packing boxes of packaged goods for people in need.   Stay tuned for future service learning projects...