The Shadow Project

The Shadow Project's mission is to make school more accessible and engaging for children with disabilities so they can achieve their full potential. Working at the intersection of disability, poverty and race, our three programs—Goal Setting, SuperSensory Spaces, and Reading Mentors—have fostered social and academic success for over 20,000 under-resourced K-8 students in Oregon and SW Washington affected by dyslexia, ADHD, autism and trauma. We envision an education system that normalizes and celebrates learning differences, and supports every student to thrive in school.

Goal Setting uses a disabilities-specific social-emotional learning curriculum to help students face challenges with a “What is strong?” approach instead of “What is wrong?” Reading Mentors pairs the most discouraged readers with trained volunteers and assistive learning technology, Learning Ally, to help students make progress towards grade-level literacy. SuperSensory Spaces provide sensory and movement tools for children with disabilities or trauma so they can learn to stay focused and engaged in the classroom.

Check out this video created by a Shadow Project 2021 Spring Term PSU CYFS Student intern, regarding their experience working with The Shadow Project: https://youtu.be/aizo8gC2Abw.