[caption id="attachment_30912" align="alignleft" width="300"]. Southeast student Amber Halloran (center) helps participants with puzzles at the Horizons Enrichment Center.[/caption]As one of the adult day programs in the greater Cape Girardeau area, Southeast Missouri State Universitys Horizons Enrichment Center serves a need for developmentally disabled adults, their families and students in the southeast Missouri area.The Center, located at 2100 Themis Street in Cape Girardeau, offers curricula and services, including social integration, recreation therapy, group speech therapy, community field trips and many other activities. The Center has two classrooms each staffed by three teachers, a gym and a full kitchen for life skills education.The program offers supervision, recreation, life skill activities and social interaction in a caring atmosphere, said Tracy Owens, director of the Center, a resource of the Universitys Family Studies program. It also allows parents, guardians, caregivers and other family members respite from the full-time responsibilities of care giving. It provides the program participants and their families an increased quality of life.The Center is beneficial to Southeast students as well. It provides them the opportunity to experience the daily operations of an adult enrichment agency, from administrative duties to budgeting and working with clients.We want our students to be immersed in the program, showing them all the ins and outs of running and working for an agency, said Dr. Tony Faber, professor of family studies.As part of a practicum, Southeast family studies majors assist and observe at the Center during the last eight weeks of the fall semester. The students spend 37 hours at the Center and teach the participants life skills. They also meet weekly with Owens and Faber to discuss issues related to the provision of services for developmentally disabled adults.The purpose is to expose students to different populations and to have them gain experience teaching different aspects of family life education, Faber said.[caption id="attachment_30913" align="alignright" width="300"]
