The Coshocton County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities believes that each human being is unique and valuable simply because of his or her intellectual functioning and his or her initiative for productivity. Each human being should be provided with appropriate opportunities to contribute to society and to reach the same goals as other persons. It requires that the value of an individual not be measured on an economical, social or political scale.

The Coshocton County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities is charged through federal, state and local regulations to provide developmental training to help mentally retarded and developmentally delayed persons to develop capacities, skills and resources which will help them play a part in the community in which they live. The services provided will depend upon their needs and each educational/habilitative plan will be individually tailored. Services may include classroom instruction, ancillary instruction such as language development, gross and fine motor, vocational evaluation/adjustment, various types of employment, both in-home and in the community, and Service and Support .

The persons served by our program are both children and adults. As children, they have need for self-confidence, self-respect, security, community acceptance, friendship, love, etc. As they grow, they have the right to make mistakes, and to learn from the consequences of their acts. They deserve the same community acceptance and toleration of mistakes as any person who is not handicapped.

It is the belief of Hopewell School and Industries that regardless of individual rates of development and capacity for learning all individuals will be able to achieve fulfillment when offered appropriate opportunities and stimulation. The Hopewell staff work to recognize individual differences in human beings and the fact that these differences can lead to different goals and different techniques for learning.

We must keep in mind at all times that each person in the program, whether child or adult, exists in a community, has a way of life that suits him and others, and has a certain effect on members of the non-handicapped community. We realize, too, that many groups of people live different lives within the community served by our program. It is not our desire to take, or keep any person from the way of life of his family or friends.

As a result, the services received by the individuals we serve will be, to the greatest extent possible, consumer driven, not provider oriented. As important as teaching an individual specific skills and objectives, it is just as important to teach the individual the ability to make choices.

We will work with the community and the family to provide programming that enhances an individual's prospects of relating favorable to the uniqueness of their community and the variances in their family's lifestyle.

In order for the Coshocton County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities to carry out the duties of the program in agreement with the philosophy, it must strive to accomplish various objectives which follow:

1. To continually strive to improve the curriculum at all levels.

A. Communication skills will be incorporated into the curriculum to allow each student to communicate, in some manner, with his/her environment.

B. The curriculum will include socialization skills to help each student better relate to and understand his/her environment.

C. Activities pertaining to self help and vocational skills will be emphasized to help each student to become more self-sufficient and self-reliant.

D. Functional academic skills will be incorporated into the curriculum to help enable each student to better learn basic skills.

E. Each student will have the opportunity to participate in physical development and leisure time activities to enable him/her to gain skills which will offer the individual alternatives for his/her "leisure time".

2. Through both formal or informal means, to seek and assess the various opportunities which our students and adults may be able to take advantage of in the community.

3. To promote a positive relationship with the community.

4. To strive to have each student/adult become as independent as possible.

equal opportunity employment statement

Equal Employment Opportunity, as specified by Ohio Fair Employment Practices Law, is a major goal of the Coshocton County Board of MR/DD. Therefore, it shall be the policy of this program to provide Equal Employment Opportunity for all persons regardless of race, color, sex, religion, creed, national origin, handicap or age.