Highlights
Advocacy
We advocate on the state and federal levels to ensure benefits, supports and services for families and their loved ones.
Families
We support people with disabilities and their families, focusing on human rights, personal choice and control of their own lives.
Youth
Collaborating with Merrimack College and local high schools, we engage youth with recreation, peer mentoring and building positive relationships.
Self Advocacy
As presidents elected by their constituencies, individuals take part in Presidents Club, meeting monthly with the CEO and President, delivering program reports of what they all like about our organization, facility and program improvements they recommend, and issues important to them.
Communications
Individuals running for the coveted office of president run their campaigns and make their speeches, vying for the votes of their constituents. Then, Human Rights presidents meet with their peers in the day programs and solicit information and issues important to them.
Organization
After individuals advocate for themselves, making suggestions for improving their programs and the facilities, their presidents develop a report, one they take a directly to the CEO every two months in Presidents Club meetings.
Leadership
President’s Club has allowed many people to express themselves and their concerns in a constructive manner, as well as empowering them to be part of the solution. It provides a safe environment for people to learn and practice good, effective leadership skills and develop more confidence through representation and public speaking.
Our Healthy Balance Program
Grants from New Balance Foundation, DCU for Kids and the Ronald McDonald Charitable Foundation make it possible for us to deliver after-school physical activities to more than 30 kids, matching them to Merrimack College students who congratulate, reinforce and help them enjoy the physical fitness experience, so that it might become a part of their daily lives.
Rec coordinator Ryan Martinez of Merrimack College coaches Lawrence High School students during a kickball activity.
Program impact
Year to year, Healthy Balance has a profound impact on student participants at Andover and Lawrence high schools, physically, socially, and behaviorally, said Zi Yan, Ph.D., professor of Public Health and Health Promotion at Merrimack College.
Peer-to-peer mentoring
College student volunteers and instructors get just as much out of this engaging and fun program as the students at Lawrence and Andover high schools do.
Outcomes
As evidenced in year-to-year, pre- and post-testing, student participants improve on upper body strength, measured by hand-grip test; cardiovascular function, measured by a six-minute walking test; and flexibility, measured by sit-and-reach test.
LHS students practice body lifts with their Merrimack College peer-mentors.