As young adults begin the transition out of high school and away from home, many families are often faced with decisions and questions about the next steps. The development of independent living skills cannot take place in a vacuum: young adults with developmental challenges need to actively both learn and practice these skills in a structured/supervised environment to hone their abilities.
Summit’s new Independent Living Center incorporates everyday living tasks into a daily educational curriculum. This curriculum focuses on 4 critical areas of independent development: Life Skills, Organizational/Executive Functioning Skills, Social Communication Skills, and Pre-Vocational Skills.
Our facilities have been developed to simulate an apartment living environment. Each house has a fully functioning kitchen, bathroom, and living room for participants to use as they live and learn together. A shared laundry facility allows participants to practice tasks of maintaining their clothing and belongings. Our maximum 5:1 participant/staff ratio provides support while also allowing learning to occur with the least restrictive structure. Participants learn to live in a shared facility, where they have their own space but share common areas= meaning they must negotiate shared common spaces, and problem-solve as house group.
Mornings are structured with targeted lessons and field trips into the community where participants will practice their acquired skills. Afternoons are spent engaging a wide array of social and recreational programming. Participants have work experiences in the community as a critical component of developing vocational and transferable life skills.
A partial list of topics incorporated into our set curriculum include:
Life skills:
– Preparation of all meals
– Laundry
– Emergency First Aid
– Basic Home Maintenance
– Shopping
– Personal Care/Hygiene
– Making a plan for free time
Organizational/Executive Functioning Skills:
– Organization of personal space
– Meal planning/shopping
– Time Management
– Bill Paying
– Record Keeping
Pre-Vocational Skills:
– Correspondence & Form Filling
– Phone skills
– Basic Money skills
– Basic Internet Skills
– Transportation/Time Management
Social Skills:
– Social Planning
– Navigating conflict
– Social Safety
– Problem Solving/Self Advocacy
– Initiating/Maintaining Conversations
The Summit Independent Living Program Participant: Ready for Transition
When families consider enrollment in the Independent Living Program, it is important to know that the curriculum has a different set of goals than those of our traditional camp, travel, or weekender programs at Summit. While the Summit Independent Living Center does retain a social/recreational component, the focus of the program is primarily that of developing independence, through vocational and life skills. It is important for participants to commit to these goals and view their time at the program as a time for growth, community, and fun.
The curriculum is modified for the needs of participants, multiple instructional tracks are established, and we have the ability to accommodate varying academic levels in the program. We believe that if students have achieved the basic prerequisite skills below, the quality of their experience with the Summit Independent Living Program is greatly enhanced:
Basic Prerequisite Skills of a Summit Independent Living Program Participant:
1. Activities of Daily Living:
● 100% independence with showering/toileting and care of personal hygiene, other than perhaps shaving.
● Awareness of personal and environmental safety issues and the ability to communicate safety concerns.
2. Demeanor
● Strong desire to become independent.
● Ready to participate: not likely to engage in refusal, argumentative verbal or other oppositional behavior towards staff or peers.
3. Social Capability/ Independence
● Must be able to function successfully within an environment where there will be a maximum 5:1 staff/participant ratio.
● Must demonstrate a willingness to share community space and live with housemates.
● Must demonstrate a level of both receptive and expressive language that enables the participant to interact and contribute to social and academic experiences.