Penfield Montessori Academy - Designing For Good Proposal

Penfield Montessori Academy, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is only one of three Montessori schools in the United States that serves special needs children and in a highly inclusive environment. Many of these children come from some of the most challenging neighborhoods in the metropolitan area. There is no cost to attend.

This video is a synopsis of PMA's proposal to the 2021 Aquent/Designing for Good grant opportunity. We propose to create new kinds of tools and methods to support special needs children who may be non-verbal or episodically require calming spaces.

If the grant is awarded we will use the funds to bring the concepts created to life for implementation.

This will be done with pro-bono assistance from Mount Mary University's Interior Architecture and Design, Art, Graphic Design, Occupational Therapy, Art Therapy, Education and Counseling Departments.

This will be achieved via design thinking collaborations and design charettes with the University and Penfield Montessori Academy teams.

Some children may be non-verbal due to a variety of mental, physical and situational challenges or they might be angry or simply tired, The team will seek to create new kinds of tools that can better meet these kids where they are more individually.

We wIll also work to create new kinds of quiet spaces to help children find calm and focus when they may need it, so the might be better able to join or rejoin their classmates in a more productive manner.

In both instances, the team will need to address the very broad range of challenges that our children may present.

Thank you to the Aquent/Designing for Good program for considering our proposal.

Respectfully submitted,

Bob Schwartz
Proud Board Member, Penfield Montessori Academy, and....
Dean, Schools of Arts, Design and Business
Mount Mary University
Milwaukee Wisconsin

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