Mikayla’s Voice Comes to Pennsbury

Thanks to a grant from the PA Bureau of Special Education and the full sup­port of the Pennsbury Special Education team, led by Director Regina Rausch, Pennwood Middle School was able to host “Mikayla’s Voice” assem­blies for all 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders in March 2021 with anoth­er relat­ed activ­i­ty sched­uled for April. With the theme of “inspir­ing kids of all abil­i­ties to share the mes­sage of inclu­sion,” Mikayla’s Voice spokesper­son (and Mikayla’s proud Mom) Kimberly Resh, led the assem­blies. Centering on the con­cepts of 1) inspir­ing chil­dren and young adults to embrace indi­vid­u­als of all abil­i­ties; 2) empow­er­ing them to cre­ate cul­tur­al change by teach­ing oth­ers to include every­one; and 3) edu­cat­ing the com­mu­ni­ty about the mean­ing and impor­tance of inclu­sion, Mikayla’s Voice pre­sen­ta­tions are both per­son­al and mean­ing­ful. To date, the group has had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to present inclu­sion assem­blies to more than 55,000 stu­dents in schools across Pennsylvania.

The Mikayla’s Voice “Wheels of Friendship” inclu­sive art activ­i­ty also took place place at Pennwood in late April.