Program for Developmentally Challenged Youth

The DuMond Conservancy has for a number of years offered a supplementary program that allows developmentally challenged youth to go out into the community and practice functional living and workplace skills. Students assist in all sorts of activities ranging from preparing primate meals and maintaining cages to caring for and learning about different species and individual monkeys living at the Conservancy and the adjacent zoological park (Monkey Jungle). The majority of the monkeys are Owl Monkeys that live in small family groups and several families have one family member who is handicapped in some way.

We feel that partnering these interns with a small number of handicapped monkeys, many who are elderly and have special needs, is a powerful tool to capitalize on the inspiration the handicapped monkeys have been to our organization in general and the motivation that we feel they can be specifically to these developmentally challenged students in particular. The use of animal therapy to help mentally handicapped students improve their learning abilities has won increasing acceptance among psychologists in recent years, most notably the use of dolphins with autistic children.

In addition, we offer the developmentally challenged interns an opportunity to stay connected to the community, through staying in contact with their friends from school and organizing outings to community events - high school football games being easily the most popular. All students and their families are invited to our annual Christmas party and the families also have an open invitation to visit the Conservancy and Monkey Jungle (as our guests). We also seek to widen the social networks of the students by encouraging interactions with our volunteers and staff members at the zoological park.

Special thanks to our sponsors:

Allegany Franciscan Ministries, Inc.

Dade Community Foundation