The Greater Milwaukee Foundation has awarded two Occupational Therapy Doctoral Program faculty members a $75,000 grant to create an adaptive sports camp for children with disabilities in the Milwaukee area.
The MKE ComMUnOT — pronounced “community” — camps will be designed and implemented by Drs. Ann E. Millard and Michele Sheehan with the help of doctoral capstone student David Rosario. Millard and Sheehan are also partnering with Wisconsin African American Women’s Center.
“We hope to create a multifaceted approach to support children with disabilities in our area, as well as moments of experiential learning for our students by providing them with a chance to engage in community outreach,” Sheehan says. “Our program will focus on evidence-based practice and incorporate currently enrolled occupational therapy students for fieldwork and capstone opportunities as well as student workers from the Educational Opportunity Program to serve children in our local community.”
According to the 2021 Milwaukee County Community Health Needs Assessment, approximately 25% of Black respondents and fewer than 33% of family households indicated there were affordable health care options in their community.
“We’ve found that community-based occupational therapy services are severely lacking for those where cost is a barrier to them in the greater Milwaukee area and right here in our own neighborhood near Marquette,” Millard says. “Our camps aim to increase racial equity while bridging the gap of pediatric occupational therapy health care access by providing free assessments and intervention for children and education for caregivers.”
Dr. Christine O’Neill, chair of the Occupational Therapy Department, says Sheehan and Millard are putting into action the Jesuit principles of justice, dignity and the pursuit of excellence.
“Support from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation in the form of this grant will create opportunities to provide services for children who would otherwise not be able to receive them,” O’Neill says. “This is a huge step forward in developing and providing health care services for those in need. I am extremely proud of the work our faculty members have done and will continue to do to ensure that those who need services in our community will receive them.”
More information on the camps will be made available this spring including registration.
