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Brief Description of the Program* <br /> ORCA's Living Lagoon Program exposes Indian River County (IRC) students to the world of living shorelines through <br /> a newly developed school gardening and education program that will help restore impaired areas of the Indian River <br /> Lagoon (IRL)in IRC and inspire environmental stewardship. Living shorelines are shoreline protection projects that <br /> provide habitat for plants and animals, stabilize shorelines, and improve water quality. This is a community-based <br /> collaboration of ORCA, the Indian River Land Trust (IRLT) and Indian River County School District. The program <br /> provides real world experiences and hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) education_, <br /> activities for local students. ORCA was recently awarded an Indian River County Impact 100 award to begin this <br /> collaborative project. We will be working with students from six public schools in IRC. The Living Lagoon project will <br /> } include in-school, after school and summer activities. We are requesting funding from the IRC Children's Services <br /> Advisory Committee to support an expansion of our Living Lagoon Program that targets working with and mentoring <br /> IRC students with disabilities through after school and summer activities. To address the gap of available programs <br /> for children 12 and older, we will work with high school students with disabilities. A group of general education high <br /> school students involved in the in-school component of the program will be mentored and trained by ORCA staff <br /> } and exceptional education teachers to become effective mentors to high school students with disabilities during <br /> after school programs and summer camps. Research has shown that students with disabilities are much more likely <br /> } to develop new relationships and strengthen their social and communication skills when they are in close proximity <br /> to their peers without disabilities. However, opportunities for students with disabilities to interact with students <br /> without disabilities are often very limited during regular school hours due to students with disabilities being enrolled <br /> { in separate classes (Feldman et al. 2016). To address this issue, the program staff will provide opportunities for <br /> students with disabilities to be mentored by their peers without disabilities outside of regular school hours. To our <br /> knowledge, there are currently no after school or summer STEAM programs available for students with disabilities in <br /> IRC. ORCA has provided field trip activities to this population of students from Vero Beach High School during the <br /> 2016-2017 school year with great success. While ORCA is based out of a facility in St. Lucie County, the majority <br /> of our work takes place in Indian River County. We will work exclusively with students from IRC during our Living <br /> Lagoon Program. References: Feldman, R., Carter, E.W, Asmus, J., and Brock, M.E. Exceptional Children. (2016). <br /> Presence, Proximity, and Peer Interactions of Adolescents with Severe Disabilities in General Education <br /> Classrooms. Vol. 82(2) 192-208. <br /> 2017044 Page 4 of 28 05/03/2017 <br />