Date: Fri 24-Oct-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

schools-life-skills-

Full Text:

Working Out: Learning Skills For The Real World

(with photos)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Job coaching helps life-skills students develop work skills in the real world.

John Preipke gets that sense of satisfaction that comes from a job well done

when he admires the mums he and his job coach have just planted outside Sandy

Hook School.

Gjon Hoti and co-worker VJ Shae assist Patty Chaffee, the assistant manager of

the Grand Union, with stocking shelves, part of the routine work required in

the grocery store. Job coach Cherie Swetts then gets the students started on a

new task, and watches how they handle it.

These students are part of a life-skills program at Newtown High School, run

by Barbara Currell. Each student spends several hours a day in classes,

learning basic life skills that range from reading common and emergency signs

to developing helpful social skills.

Then for approximately three hours each day, the students take on real work

assignments. Of the five students currently enrolled in the program, three

work in the community, currently all at Grand Union, and the other two are

helping out within local schools.

Mrs Currell explained that all the students start working within the schools,

in the guidance and attendance offices, the cafeteria, and assisting the

custodial staff. Then they are ready to move on.

Mrs Currell said, "The working is an assessment of their skills to see what

they would be able to do in a working environment."

Students have the opportunity to gain work skills with a number of local

employers, including Lexington Gardens, Ashlar Nursing Home, My Place

Restaurant, and The Taunton Press.

The Taunton Press will be welcoming their first life-skills student, to be

placed in the recycling area, in the near future.

Patty Chaffee, assistant manager of Grand Union in Newtown, said that "these

young people are a big help. They help with frozen food, dairy, grocery,

general merchandising, yogurt and credits, and most of all they have a great

attitude -- they are willing to help me on anything."

Although typically the students have a job coach with them for support, Mrs

Currell noted that one student, Gjon Hoti, worked at My Place Restaurant on

his own.

Mrs Currell said that the majority of them will need a job coach over the long

term, if they are to continue to do real work in the community.

"When they leave here, they are eligible to be involved in state agencies such

as DATHAR program, where job coaches would continue to be provided."

Many students do choose to go on to state funded programs, but a few years ago

two students were hired to work within the local school system upon graduation

from this program at age 20.

Apart from the obvious benefits of employment and work placements, Mrs Currell

reflected that, "It develops their self-confidence and gives them a real sense

of accomplishment to be working at a job that fulfills a need in the

community."