Lansdowne has talent

Lansdowne Children’s Centre recently showcased the talents of youth with special needs.
The Brantford-based centre supports youth who live with special needs due to physical, communications or developmental challenges.
The lobby and boardroom of 39 Mount Pleasant St. served as the backdrop for a range of creative performances and exhibits arising from a fall series of programs exploring artistic expression.
First the kids showed off their visual art creations in the lobby before family and friends watched some of them perform with drums and dance.
School-aged youth have been participating in three different streams of Lansdowne’s therapeutic recreation program: Artfelt Minds for visual artistic creations, dancing and drumming.
Therapeutic recreation provides an opportunity to explore an interest in the performing arts, while building self-esteem and increasing executive functioning skills.
Lansdowne Children’s Centre annually serves more than 2,600 young people from birth to age 19 and their families across Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk.
Nearly 260 staff work at the centre, in family homes, in schools, in 29 child care centres, at a Simcoe satellite office and 18 outreach locations, as well as its Kids’ Country Inn. The inn provides overnight respite for youth who are medically fragile or technologically dependent. Clients served range from children with slight articulation problems to life-threatening challenges with needs arising from cerebral palsy, spina bifida, Down syndrome, brain injury, muscular dystrophy, autism or other developmental delays.