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Providing sacrament prep for special needs students

Zoey Maraist | Catholic Herald Staff Writer

Nancy Emanuel, coordinator of special needs ministries, looks through a sacrament preparation kit designed for students with special needs. ZOEY MARAIST | CATHOLIC HERALD

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Nancy Emanuel taught only briefly before
becoming a Russian linguist for the U.S. Navy. So she was surprised when her
children’s school offered her a position as a long-term substitute special
needs teacher. The temporary position changed the trajectory of her career.

“I absolutely loved what I was doing,”
she said. Today, Emanuel works as the first coordinator of special needs for
the Diocese of Arlington.

For years, programs for students with
special needs have cropped up in diocesan Catholic schools, starting with Paul
VI Catholic High School’s Options program in 1999. However, in her new role,
Emanuel works on the parish level to see that people with special needs receive
religious education and the sacraments, and participate fully in the life of
the church.

“I’d like to think of myself as the
clearinghouse for anything having to do with people with disabilities,” she
said. “We have the pieces, but right now they’re just scattered throughout
different diocesan offices and programs.”

Emanuel grew up in Westfield, Mass., and
attended Catholic school. While in the Navy, she traveled around the world, and
met and married her husband, Barton, in Japan. They eventually settled in
Manassas with their son and daughter, and have been parishioners of All Saints
Church in Manassas for 24 years.

Once she decided she wanted to teach
special education, Emanuel earned a master’s degree in 2002 and continued
working for Manassas public schools. Her last job was department supervisor of
special education for Osbourn High School. She earned her doctorate in special
education and educational leadership from George Mason University in Fairfax in
2017.

During that time, Emanuel learned her
parish was launching a SPRED (Special Religious Development) program and she
decided to volunteer. SPRED was developed in 1966 in the Archdiocese of Chicago
and then spread around the world.

Only six parishes in the diocese have
SPRED, which provides religious education to children and adults with special
needs: Sacred Heart Church and All Saints in Manassas, the Basilica of St. Mary
in Alexandria, Corpus Christi Church in South Riding, Holy Spirit Church in
Annandale and Our Lady of Hope Church in Potomac Falls. Church of the Nativity
in Burke will launch its program this fall. Other parishes may have different
programs for students with specials needs, such as St. Raymond of Peñafort
Church in Springfield, which uses the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

As part of her work, Emanuel wants to
establish SPRED at more parishes. SPRED kids require a lot of one-on-one
attention, so it takes volunteers, said Emanuel, but you don’t have to be a
special needs expert.

“Kids with disabilities are just kids
who learn differently,” she said. “The whole concept of the SPRED program is
that you’re not truly an instructor, but you’re a friend and you’re guiding
them to find meaning and religious experiences through everyday activities. There’s
a whole world of material available for people with disabilities.”

At All Saints, she’s had the “real
blessing” of witnessing several children receive their first Communion or make
their confirmation. “People think, ‘Oh they’re never going to learn, this kid
can’t even speak,’ — they really can (learn). They can understand the
concepts,” she said. “We have children who are nonverbal, who are quadriplegic,
and they are making their sacraments.”

Find out more

To start a SPRED program at your parish, contact Nancy
Emanuel at [email protected] or 703/224-1633.

 

 

 

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