Vakıfbank Bolu Branch, Account Number: 2028363

• Foundation's Mission

The Bolu Branch was founded on October 6, 1991, with Nebahat Özer as President. Following its establishment, training and rehabilitation services were started right away in a location that belonged to the National Ministry of Education. However, the Ministry took over this school to include it under its own auspices. Since the mission of the Foundation is to facilitate the training and protection of all mentally disabled children in any province, our Foundation continued to give its support to the school. It also made a land donation to our Dağkent Branch.

This Branch laid the foundations of the school building in 1999 and continued with its speedy construction. In spite of the fact that a great blow was received with the earthquake disaster of that year, the Executive Board also persistently and bravely completed the construction of eight prefabricated houses on its lot, with generous support from citizens working in Germany, to inhabit eight families with mentally disabled children that had lost their houses due to this disaster. The Bolu Branch is now continuing with its expert service to mentally handicapped children in the modern building which was finished with great help from the Ankara Siteler Businessmen’s Service Committee and support from other donors. The Foundation is utilizing the existing prefabricated structures for housing and workshop necessities.

The information and documents necessary for applying to the Foundation Headquarter and Branches are as stated below:

The parent of the handicapped individual applies to the institution with a letter of intent.

The experts in charge hold an interview with the family and complete the interview form.

The children who apply are previewed by the educators of the “Evaluation Board” on whether they will be able to receive training and rehabilitation, or on at which stage such training and rehabilitation may be started, and the decision on what their primary needs will be. Following their temporary enrollment, these individuals are listed in order, until their final enrollment is completed.

Such documents as the Health Committee report, the report from the Counselling and Research Center, proof of address (of the parent), 6 passport-size photos, report obtained from the Tuberculosis Control Dispensary are requested from the parent, as needed for enrollment as students.

Upon the receipt of the Health Committee report and the Counselling and Research Center report, the prospective student is reevaluated for final enrollment.

In the Foundation school, education is offered to children who can be taught and who have one or more of the symptoms listed below, according to their dissability types as follows:

• Mental Retardation,
• Learning Difficulties,
• Speach Defects,
• Hyperactivity,
• Autism,
• Down Syndrome,
• Motor Retardation,
• Spastic Disabilities (cerebral palsy),
• Muscle Diseases.

Our students whose enrollment has been completed are placed in programs according to the aimed results and specified by the final evaluation. These programs are:

• Developmental Recognition abd Evaluation Program
• Basic Living Skills Program
• Academic Skills Program
• Physical Development Program (physical therapy)
• Language and Speach Therapy Program
• Social Rehabilitation Program
• Psycho-social Support and Development Program
• Family Education and Counselling Program
• Work and Occupational Therapy Program
• Transition to Independent Living Program

In our institution education and training is offered as full day group and individual sessions, along the objectives specified by these Programs.

• Special Education Expert,
• Child Development and Education Experts,
• Social Services Expert,
• Physical Therapist,
• Class Instructors,
• Auxiliary Teacher.

At 08:30 every morning our students are picked up from their homes by our service vehicle and delivered to our school. Following the preparation time, five hour group education program sessions start at 09:00. The characteristics of the group education include the following:

The students of each class are grouped together according to their performance levels and they are students with similar characteristics. At present, we operate two different classes in which different programs are applied: those that can be trained and those that can be taught. Sınıflarımız en çok sekiz kişiliktir.Sınıflarımızda derslere özel eğitim uzmanı ve çocuk gelişimi uzmanı girmektedir.

The programs applied at our institution are chosen and applied according to the development levels and pace of our students.

In the system we use, the students stay in their classes and the teachers revolve. Each expert teacher has a specialty branch. These branches are as follows:

• Academic Education
• Language Education
• Conceptual Education
• Life Sciences
• Personal Hygiene/Daily Living Skills
• Basic Living Skills Aquisition Training
• Social Integration Activities
• Musical Education
• Art Application Skills and Teaching (painting, hand crafts)
• Physical Education
• Work-crafts Skills (woodworking, overshoes production, etc.)

The children who attend each Group receive individual training and education, parallel to and as support for their group work, every day.

Lunch for our students who participate in Group Education are provided by our Branch and no additional financial support is requested from parents.

Group education class sessions are fortyfive minutes long each; during the first 10 minutes of a session, motivation and attention attraction activities and exercises are applied. The remaning time duration is used for individual education work by the expert specialist. The last 10-15 minutes are devoted to the completion of specific class activities (awarding, games pertinent to the topic, etc.).

This education model is applied in four different groups. Each new student in our school goes through an individual education process for one month. This time period is used to determine the performance level of the student, followed by the decision process for the student’s class level and the placement of our student. However, if the student has behavioral or other problems, this time period can be extended as needed.

If there is no class suitable for the level of the student, he or she will continue to receive the individual education service we offer. Since some of our students come to us from villages far away from our Foundation Branch center, these students specifically receive individual care and education.

Support education and training needed by the students who have been placed in the special sub-classes are also given by way of individual education sessions.

Varying according to the specific needs of the handicapped individuals, special programs which are educational, developmental, and helpful for the adaptation of the students to the group are furthermore organized and applied. These are as follows:

Work and Activities toward preparation for Academic Education

• Working on attention
• Working on awareness
• Working on memory

Academic Education (Mental Development)

• Conceptual Education (Refined-Rough Motor Development)
• Mathematics Education
• Reading-Writing Education
• Life/Environmental Sciences Education
• Computer Supported Education

Language Education

Activities and Education Directed towards Psycho-social Development

Activities and Education Directed towards Psycho-motor Development

Activities and Education Directed towards Emotional and Spiritual Development

Individual education in special sessions constitude the most important feature directed towards special education. This is the educational system in which all the deficiencies and needs of the student are identified and he or she is guided through the process of acquiring the necessary skills for living.

How are these needs identified?

Primarily, deficiencies and needs of the development/skills inventory are identified.

Starting with these deficiencies, lists for the needs of the individual student are prepared. Then, individual education plans are prepared, according to the long term objectives covering the concepts and the skills identified for the student to gain at this stage.

Each month, systematically, a concept or skill is chosen for the student, so that the defined short term objective (for the concept/skill) can be intensely worked on, primarily for that month.

At the termination of the month, the short term objective and the achievements are evaluated. If there is positive (+) reaction to the objective the expert teachers are working on, a new objective is determined. If the desired level of positive reaction has not been reached (-), more work is continued on that objective for some more time as needed.

The answers to ‘which long term/short term objectives have been achieved?’, ‘what sort of problems the student has faced?’, and ‘what will be undertaken as the following step?’ are entered into the student’s “Development File”, in a timely manner, with care. The specific Individual Education Plans, all information about the child, and the monthly evaluations concerning the student are also placed within this file.

As in full day group education, the students at similar performance levels are placed together for group education in sessions. The programs applied in such groups, where six students are placed together in one group, with respect to their progress levels, are as follows:

• Academic skills education
• Aquisition of personal care daily living skills
• Basic living skills aquisition
• Social activities
• Hand crafts-workshop activities (painting, music)
• Play / Drama

Within our summer programs, we offer physical education classes, in addition to workshop activities. Such programs which bring together children within similar developmental levels and provide for active and enjoyable social environments also contribute greatly to their social development.

We offer occupational and professional teaching, directed towards individuals who have benefited from the special education programs. Recreational and hobby activities, art education and therapy programs are also offered according to the special needs of the students.

Programs aimed at supporting creativity in our students and developing hand and crafts skills, are organized and applied within our educational programs.

The scarves, jewelry, art objects, etc., that are produced in the work-crafts workshops, as well as the overshoes our students make in the occupational workshop, are sold to public at appropriate public occasions and provide for some contribution to our School.

One of our long term objectives is to help the mentally handicapped individuals to gain occupational skills to provide for their utilization in the protective work environments, according to their own individual interests and capabilities.

This includes the activities carried on by our Center’s physical therapist to overcome the physical developmental problems (deficiencies) that may occur in the mentally handicapped student (if any), parallel to the handicap.

These services are directed towards the children who are behind in reading-writing and mathematics education, those who are excessively active (Hyperactivity), who have attention deficiency, and those who have social adaptation problems:

• Academic support
• Language development
• Major-minor muscle (motor) development support
• Social-emotional support
• Family counseling

Whether they attend individual education or group education sessions, our students and their families are all offered the services listed below.

For a period of eight weeks, the family members of the students who attend our Center receive academic education, self care, training in behavior acquisition of solving a problematic behavior, speech education, and learn about the different groups of handicapped individuals, so that they can actively participate and contribute to their children’s education, and they can help them overcome their handicaps.

• Meetings with parents
• Parents’ informative meetings
• Parents’ educational meetings
• “Skills acquisition” for parents during sessions
• Visual education series presentation, “cinevision”
• Parents can observe all individual sessions.

This is an activity conducted by the Social Services Expert of our Center. Its objective is to work towards finding solutions for the specific problems faced by the parents of children with mental handicaps.

In addition to the programs stated above, specific work is carried on in the following applications, with regard to the children’s developmental needs and progress levels.

Our aim is to apply special education programs for the older mentally handicapped individuals so that, as academic education sessions are reduced, the programs prepared to facilitate their social lives and support the productive utilization of their time with resourceful activities replace these in time. Programs enriched by such activities as kitchen work, drama, music/dance help to prepare happy and healthy living environments for individuals.

This is the unit which is utilized to help our students who have behavioral problems; it helps students to relax using music and light plays. Especially music education is very significant along with light plays. These are very effective in developing the skills of listening in communication and attention concentration. They are important primarily for autistic children and for those who carry the characteristics of autism.

In our educational programs, we include various physical education classes and activities, which are of primary importance for the education and development of mentally handicapped children. Our students participate in nationwide special sports activities and receive medals and recognition for their accomplishments.

In accordance with principle of the continuity of education, meals are offered under the supervision of experts in this field. All meals are provided for our students by our Center; no financial contribution is requested from parents for food.

This is the unit that provides for health care and service. Also, once a year, expert doctors do health screening and dentists do dental check-ups.

The transportation service vehicle is provided by our School Center; no financial contribution is required from parents for this service. Our students remain under the constant supervision of our experts during their transportation to the School and back home.

In order to provide for the interaction of mentally handicapped children and the public and help create a common social environment, great importance and effort are given to organizing such social activities as: educational field trips (museums, the zoo, theater, movies, fairs, etc.), picnics, bazaars and celebrations, and youth camps. In addition, to participate in the Balıkesir/Ayvalık Celebration, Youth Camp, and the Davutlar Camp are some of the activities that significantly contribute to the socialization of our students. The Dağkent Summer Celebration, attended by the Governor of Bolu, our Mayor, the Social Services Provincial Director, and members of the press, where all our children and their families had a very enjoyable time, was successfully organized in the garden of our Foundation School.

We have a play ground and park next to our Education building; it is one of the spaces highly utilized and most enjoyed by all our students.

• Photo Album