Youth Encounter Program

ILAN’s Youth Encounter Program provides opportunities for physically disabled and non-disabled teenagers to meet and interact as peers, and to develop relationships based on mutual respect. Throughout the year, during weekly after-school activities, at holiday parties, on weekend trips, and at special events, non-disabled young people who volunteer as counselors assist their disabled friends. These experiences offer the disabled youths an opportunity to step outside their regular environment, to travel and broaden their horizons. Through these encounters, they grow in self-confidence and self-esteem. For disabled young people, ILAN’s Youth Encounter Program provides the kind of positive social interactions that could not otherwise be achieved in an uninitiated social environment.