Eyeing independence, Program prepares visually impaired teens for work

July 26, 2007

Eyeing independence, Program prepares visually impaired teens for work

July 26, 2007

Times Argus
SOUTH BARRE — A half-dozen teenagers, blind and visually impaired, sat on the floor of the Vermont Foodbank warehouse Wednesday putting labels on bottles of Gatorade. Later in the afternoon, they would pack 315 cartons of commodities to be distributed to elderly, low-income Vermonters.

Kemol Cross from East Calais, a junior at U-32, called the experience of building the commodities boxes "interesting. It's the first time I've worked on conveyer belt," he said. "It's a lot of fun, and it requires a lot of teamwork. You have one person pushing the box and another putting cereal in it."

The service project is part of a program designed to teach 16- to 19-year-olds independent living skills and workplace savvy. LEAP — Learn, Earn and Prosper — a four-week, residential pilot program run by the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, was designed to address a troubling fact, that 70 percent of the blind and visually impaired are unemployed.

Since July 1, the six participants – two are legally blind, one has little functional vision and the other three have less severe losses – have lived together in an apartment at Rock Point School in Burlington. Linda Chung, a vision rehabilitation therapist who herself is blind, has taught those with the least vision such skills as how to use an oven timer and make Braille labels for cupboards. The whole group has learned how to make menus, shop (and keep within a budget), clean and cook.

"Making spaghetti and pancakes is always fun," said Matthew Brantner, LEAP's coordinator. He and Chung have been living with the students all month.

During the day, except for Wednesdays, which are devoted to service projects, the young people have been working at ReCycle North, waiting on customers, doing office work and learning how to get along with supervisors and co-workers. They have also learned how to use public transportation, a crucial skill for getting to work, since they can't drive.

"(LEAP) is not a camp. It's a job," Brantner noted. The participants are earning the minimum wage, a little more than $300 a week. He said that after the program ends Saturday, participants will continue to receive support through Linking Learning to Life, one of LEAP's partner agencies, until they go to college or get a job.

In some respects, the life skills learned are those that any teenager needs to know. Being together under the same roof has provided opportunities to learn how to resolve differences, a skill necessary for living in a college dormitory or getting along with a roommate in an apartment, Brantner said.

Chung said "basic group dynamics – making sure someone is not biting someone else's head off" – is one of the biggest challenges the group has faced.

Becca Camp-Allen, who will be a senior at Mount Mansfield Union High School in the fall, observed, "We all know each other from camps, but we've never lived with each other. It's been a little stressful."

In the workplace, the participants have been learning a skill (and the confidence to use it) that their sighted peers seldom need – how to ask for accommodations and assistive technology. "They're the ones that need to request the service," Chung said. "If they don't get to the point of advocating for themselves – and some may not – we'll talk to their supervisors."

Brantner said LEAP, which has been a year-and-a-half in the planning, grew out of the collaboration of six agencies brought together by Frank Gibney, the chief executive officer of The Gibney Family Foundation. The Vermont foundation makes grants to nonprofit organizations "which can demonstrate an outstanding ability to empower those who are challenged, particularly the blind, in their quest to live happier more productive lives," according to its Web site.

In addition to The Gibney Family Foundation, the agencies that created LEAP include the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, which has experience running residential programs for young people; ReCycle North, known for its expertise in job training; Linking Learning to Life, a Burlington agency recognized for its school-to-work programs; the Vermont Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired, the state agency that provides adaptive technology; and The Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which has an strong program for young people making the transition from high school to the workplace and independent living.

"In Vermont, this is the only residential program for kids with visual impairment," Brantner said. Gibney's goal, he added, is for the program to become a national model that can be replicated in other states.

July 26, 2007

Press Room