Volunteers for Encore Programs
Artist of the Winter, 2024
David is our newest volunteer as Safety Monitor for Encore Programs, Inc. He is responsible for making inspections of potential safety issues and reporting them to Program Managers.
Technically, Encore Programs has several “Artists of the Month,” but for the sake of brevity we only highlight one or two at a time. The past Spring has seen two Art Exhibits in the community that some of our artists have entered in and several more participants visited.
While Encore’s participants have fun role playing as “Safety Inspector,” they are also learning some valuable social skills and responsibilities:
Conscientiousness in performing a particular task
Professional interaction with “offenders,” which are deliberately staged for their benefit
Taking a particular role seriously, which can lead to some maturation in other personal areas
Care and maintenance of the tools that a “Safety Inspector” might actually use
Providing a sort of ‘feedback loop’ in the Individual Service Plan
This last component can help teachers and therapists relate information and knowledge to Regional Centers Service Coordinators in assisting the participants in understanding and implementing their own Service Plan and Self-Determination plans that they might develop with staff and coordinators.
Ben has been an Encore participant for many years and has created some rather unusual and interesting art pieces over the years. His style is at once fluid and precise and can evoke a mixture of sense of orderly freedom in the viewer as revealed in the painting, “Exercise,” above.
Ben has participated in several art shows – our annual Makers Market, Coastline Gallery shows, and recent art festivals sponsored by Orange County Dept. of Education (OCDE). His pieces below are among gallery favorites.
Future entry plans include Brea Art Gallery submissions and a show at a local coffee house
