Since 1999, Project Impact, an early intervention project housed in the T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability at Mississippi State University, has served the needs of children with disabilities as well as educating parents and caregivers of these children. 
IMPACT stands for Insuring Mississippi Parents and Children Tomorrows, which is the goal of the project. It focuses primarily on readying children to enter kindergarten at the same level as the rest of the students. 
Jessica Cunningham, assistant teacher at Project IMPACT, said this program provides services to children from three-months-old to five-years-old. It provides free assessments as well as speech, occupational and physical therapy, special instruction and interventions. 
“We try to catch the children up in any way we can until they start kindergarten. We work not only on their ABCs, but also on their social skills,” Cunningham said. “We also educate parents. Most of the parents have never had a special needs child, so we try to be a resource for the parents.”
Before accepting children into the program, an assessment team assesses the child in five main areas including cognitive, motor, language, self-help and personal/social. The child must score 70 percent or below in three of these areas to be accepted into the program. 
Once in the program, a child may be put into a class with one of three main teachers -— Elizabeth Williams or Traci Campbell, who are both early childhood special educators, or Christan Toney who is a speech and language pathologist. 
Campbell said one of her main goals is to know at the end of the day that she gave her students her all. She said she enjoys seeing the students make progress and make an impact on a family’s life. 
“I am blessed to be able to work with our young students who come to us already developmentally behind their typical developing peers and show them and their families they can learn and they can make progress,” Campbell said. 
 
According to Janie Cirlot-New, director of the T.K. Martin center, Project IMPACT, which is funded by the Mississippi Department of Health’s Early Intervention Program and the Mississippi Department of Education, relies on volunteers to assist teachers and play with the children. 
“Anyone who has an interest in children and would like to spend time with children with special needs is welcome to volunteer. Sometimes we have students interested in occupational therapy or special education or education, but we really just look for anyone who is interested in spending time with the children to volunteer,” Cirlot-New said. 
One such volunteer is Rachel Cheatham, junior special education major. Cheatham said after hearing about this program three years ago, she has been volunteering by assisting the teachers, playing with kids and assisting in instructional learning activities. 
“One of my passions is kids with disabilities, so getting involved with IMPACT was the perfect fit for me to be able to act on my passion,” Cheatham said. “My favorite thing is seeing a kid who was at one point not able to do something master that thing a couple months down the road. I have learned that it is the small accomplishments that mean the most. I have had the privilege of watching a child going from barely crawling to walking in a span of a year.”
For more information on Project IMPACT or how to volunteer, tkmartin.msstate.edu.