Life Skills Bridges and Gaps

by Dora Raymaker · 2009-02-26 09:53:00 UTC
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a long, narrow, wooden, pedestrian suspension bridge across a deep, watery canyonThe Community Adult Autism Partnership Program (CAAPP), in West Chester, Massachusetts teaches life skills like making doctor's appointments and cooking. The article says, "While there's services for young kids, adults with autism have few options. But at Devereux, CAAPP picks up where some alternative schools leave off." (video included with the CAAPP article) A much more mature program, Willobrook in New Haven, Connecticut, teaches vocational, life, social, and self-advocacy skills. Willowbrook's executive director describes,

When students come here, they had no voice, they had no ability to advocate for themselves, say what they needed, felt they had no right to choose ... now that individual is not only living in their own apartment, but they're choosing their own paint colors for the walls.

I don't know anything personally about CAAPP or Willowbrook and am not explicitly endorsing them (if anyone here knows anything specific about the programs feel free to comment). But the idea of such programs is highly appealing to me. Perhaps because I'd have less angst in my life right now if somehow I had picked up a few useful life skills in the past thirty-mumble years like, er, how to prepare a meal...

There are things I wonder about when I read about these sorts of programs.

1. Are the programs really as good and useful as they sound?

2. If so, can we have more such programs, please?

3. How many of these programs are accessible and open to older people who are long past "transition age" from high school?

Teaching young adults how to manage life and advocate for their needs with their unique set of abilities and disabilities after public school is a gap in services to be bridged. But that gap may be even wider for older adults who are not being "transitioned" from one special program to another. For those of us who entered the system late, particularly those of us without a parent to lend "credibility" to our legitimate needs, access to services may be currently unbridgeable.

Dora Raymaker
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