Veterans Memorial Park in the Village of Montgomery will receive a special amenity designed to help children with developmental disabilities communicate with their families and others: a core communication board.

Stephanie Harrigan, a former Valley Central School District employee and co-founder of Inclusive Minds LLC, proposed the project to the village mayor and trustees during their Sept. 15 meeting.

Harrigan is a local speech-language pathologist who previously worked for Valley Central and currently works for the New Paltz Central School District. In June, she and Brian Majestic, a special education teacher at Valley Central, established Inclusive Minds, an organization dedicated to helping children with developmental disabilities throughout the Hudson Valley.

The organization works with communities, first responders and school districts to increase inclusion and accessibility.

“I’m a local speech-language pathologist; I work with children who have developmental disabilities, specifically autism and others that are non-speaking or limited speaking,” Harrigan said. “I was a Valley Central employee for four years, and I currently work at New Paltz Central School District.”

“Together with a current VC employee, Brian Majestic, we created an LLC called Inclusive Minds. We have a lot of missions, but one of them is to increase inclusion and accessibility in local areas throughout the Hudson Valley,” she said.

One of Inclusive Minds’ major initiatives is installing core communication boards in public parks. The boards contain words and pictures that help children who are nonverbal or have limited speech communicate with family and friends.

For example, a child who wants to tell a parent that they want to play on the swings can point to the corresponding icon on the board. Harrigan said each board is customized to the park where it is installed and includes vocabulary related to the park’s amenities.

“The goal of adding a core communication board is to have families feel seen, have kids readily communicate with their environment and community, and reflect this population more within our public sphere,” Harrigan said. “Unfortunately, this population is frequently overlooked in public entities.”

As part of the process, Harrigan and Majestic visit the parks where boards will be installed to determine which words and images would be most useful.

“I spent some time in Veterans Memorial Park, and I saw there were athletic fields and a Spider-Man playground, so the words that could go on there would be specific to that park,” Harrigan said. “The board would also have words useful in all contexts, such as ‘I,’ ‘want,’ ‘you,’ and more.”

Inclusive Minds has installed core boards at Majestic Park in Gardiner and Hasbrouck Park in New Paltz. The organization is also working to install boards at Benedict Farm Park in Montgomery and several parks in Shawangunk.

Once a board is designed, Inclusive Minds works with the municipality to select appropriate vocabulary. A vendor then produces the board, with the municipality’s Department of Public Works handling installation.

“We would help you guys come up with the words and create the content of what would be on the board,” Harrigan said. “Then, we would look at vendors; a lot of them charge $500 to $600 to create the material, but we found a vendor that can do it for $380.”

“And then, we let the local DPW take over the installation and framing of the signage,” she said.

Trustee Randi Picarello asked about the board’s expected lifespan and whether its vocabulary could be changed if the village makes improvements to Veterans Memorial Park.

The village is considering a large-scale park improvement project within the next year or two, Picarello said.

“I wouldn’t want to put it in now and then have to recreate it,” she said.

Harrigan said the board’s vocabulary can be updated to reflect future changes to the park.

“In terms of vocabulary, we can make sure that the vocabulary will be consistent throughout any kind of renovations that you guys do for the park,” Harrigan said. “So the words on the board will still be relevant to whatever iteration the park looks like.”

The boards are designed to last five to 10 years, she said. They are UV-protected and weather-resistant and made from outdoor sign materials.

Harrigan said the boards can also be moved if necessary. The signs are typically mounted on 2-by-4 framing, she said.

The mayor and trustees expressed support for adding a core communication board to Veterans Memorial Park and approved the proposal following the Sept. 15 meeting.

Harrigan said in a post-meeting conversation that Inclusive Minds expects to know the installation timeline within the next few weeks.

For more information about Inclusive Minds LLC, visit inclusivemindsny.com.