College students, special needs families need your help
College students, unless you are a sibling to a brother or sister with a disability, you might assume that there are many individuals and organizations available to help special needs families. However, the truth is there simply are not enough supports available to families.
If you are a student studying special education or various therapy and healthcare fields, it would be a real help if you would consider working with people who have disabilities. Even if you are not in a disability related field, but have a kind and caring spirit, you can truly make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities. Please consider getting involved at our website or through your local disability organization.
Dawn Villarreal
One Place for Special Needs
How does this work?
Until now parents have had no central place to find individuals and businesses that offer services to special needs families. We are trying to change that. At One Place for Special Needs you tell families how you can help and make your own schedule. This gives you flexibility to work around your course load. Depending on your field of study your work may even double as clinical or internship time. Ask your college professor.
Those who have graduated and are having difficulty finding a job might also consider offering their services here until they secure employment. We encourage the professionals registered on our site to post job positions in our Classified section. Please take a look.
What types of special needs might I encounter?
This website is populated with all types of disabilities and disorders. Some children, teens and adults have physical disabilities or medical challenges. Others may have developmental or learning disabilities, social deficits and communication delays. You may be a student that has no experience working with a child with disabilities but have a desire to help. It’s okay to say so. Depending on your comfort level, you can also specify that you want to only work with a particular disability (ie. You have a sibling with a disability, studying about a disability, etc.).
What jobs are available?
One Place for Special Needs is not a hiring agency. We just provide the means for families and individuals to find each other. You make your own position in our Service directory based on your strengths and interests. It's free to do so. You can look through our alphabetical listing of services families typically look for, however, here are the ones that seem best suited for college students:
Childcare/Sitter category
Full or part-time sitters
Good sitters are worth their weight in gold. If you are studying a disability related field, you’ll get the opportunity to work with and understand children of various disabilities before you go on to your chosen field.
Educational programs/services category
Tutoring (Academic, art, dance, life skills, music, play skills, social skills and sports)
Many children need extra one-on-one support to master these skills.
While a parent may want a professional to work on play or social skills goals, she may look to a college student for more casual interaction. You might consider offering to come in for an hour to play board games or other social interactions.
Business Category
Assistant for home therapy program
Some families hire a therapist who sees their child once a week. Then the parent continues that work at home. In particular, families of children with autism may need several college students to work on very intensive home therapy programs. Assistants would be trained by the parent or therapist to follow that plan. If you are in a related field of study, your assistance can be invaluable to a family.
Any assistance (tell how you can help)
Parents can use an extra hand with just about anything so simply say what you can do (e.g., Help clean out garage or basement, cook, organize). Parents will put you to good use.
Concierge/Errand assistant
Errand assistants are personal concierges for a family and can really be of value to a medically challenged family. Tell a family if you are willing to help with errands.
Hair stylist
If you are studying to be a hair stylist you might consider offering haircuts to people in their homes. Depending on the challenges of the person, it might be difficult to leave the home.
Language interpreter
Parents who primarily speak a foreign language need someone to help interpret what their child’s therapist or teacher wants to communicate to them. Offering to act as an interpreter will be welcomed by the family and the professional.
Painter/muralist
Some children have behavior issues that make it difficult to keep pictures on the wall. Others have special interests that go beyond normal decorating designs. If you are an artist you might consider offering your services so kids can have some fantastic bedrooms and play rooms.
Pet services
You might consider pet services like dog walking and picking up after pets for a family with special needs. This give us more time to spend with our family.
Sports, recreation and leisure Category
Clubs/Enthusiast Group
If you belong to a club you might consider inviting someone with special needs to join your group. As people with disabilities age into adulthood it becomes difficult to find ways to be an active part of the community. This would not be a paying position but your group would be doing a great service.
Exercise/Fitness
If your major is related to athletics, physical therapy or kinesiology you might offer to work on endurance, strength training or simply teaching an individual how to play a sport at their own pace.
Adding your information
To add a listing in our local resource directory you must be a registered user. Select Local resources, choose Add a local resource and continue. Pick your category and subcategories. Then fill out the description boxes as they apply to you.
Turn on and off your listing
Your form has a checked off box that says, “This service is active.” To make it inactive simply uncheck the box. This takes your listing completely off the directory without losing the information.
This is useful if you have a semester where you can’t work or perhaps you only want to make your listing active for the summer months.
Extra tips
Wish list
On this website, parents fill out a wish list of all the services they would like for their child. As soon as your listing is approved, it is emailed to everyone in your area who are interested in your servies.
School address/home address
When you are at school keep your school residence address for your listing because the search directory matches you to parents near that address.
If you are going home in the summer and looking for work, change the listing to show your home address as early as March (especially if you are doing sitter or tutoring work). Parents begin to look for these positions early. You can explain in your listing when you will be home and available to start work. When you change your address, your listing will automatically be sent (via the wish list) to all the families near your home address.
Spread the word
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to email us. And please spread the word to your fellow students, instructors and social communities. We can use your help to create more support for families with special needs.
Let us know if your college or university has outreach program or centers for people with disabilities. We’d love to let families know about it.