The Healdsburg Unified School District is looking for businesses
interested in hiring special needs students from the Bridges
Community-Based School, a program that prepares teenagers enrolled
in special education for their adult lives.
The North County Consortium—a collective of school districts
including Healdsburg Unified—assumed full responsibilities for the
program from the Sonoma County Office of Education this fall.
District leaders say the change gives special needs students the
opportunity to work and learn within their own communities instead
of busing down to Santa Rosa.
“We value student time,” said district superintendent Jeff
Harding. “It’s an issue of respect. Students were spending several
hours a day on a bus and we can improve the quality of their
educational experience. This was a win-win for us.”
While under SCOE, the Bridges program partnered with businesses
throughout Santa Rosa and greater Sonoma County to give students an
opportunity to learn and practice working in the real world. Now
that the program has moved to North County the North County
Consortium is busy developing partnerships with north county
businesses.
Lori Moore, an organizer of Healdsburg’s Strolling Dine Around
event, lauded Bridges students for their work stuffing 2,500
brochures. “They were a huge help,” she said. “It was a really nice
group of students. They did a perfect job. They smiled and they
loved the work.”
In Windsor, Bridges’ students have for years worked at Round
Table Pizza, breaking down boxes, washing dishes, cleaning and
preparing ingredients. Assistant manager Violet Patocchi said the
students are a big help and improve morale with their positive
attitudes. “On the weekends when they don’t come in we notice the
difference,” she said. “They love doing the work.”
Special education teacher Susan Anderson said the real world
experience is very important to special needs students preparing
for life after they finish school. By law, special education
students begin school at 3 and finish at 22, 19 years of public
education. Educators like Anderson are charged in the final years
of helping students learn everything from using public
transportation to paying for merchandise to handling social
situations.
Students might have the skills to work, but Anderson says
there’s much more to holding a job than just knowing how to get
something done. “You don’t usually lose a job because you can’t do
the work,” she said. “It’s usually a social issue that gets you
fired.”
Bridges’ mission is to prepare students for the future by
immersing them in the real world. In accomplishing this, Anderson
said the world becomes a classroom. She takes her students to
different businesses and restaurants so they’ll learn how to use
skills in different environments. “They might know how to buy a
drink at 7-11, but take them to the Dollar Store and they may
become nervous,” she said. “We teach them social skills, like
talking to strangers and crossing the street. We teach them about
safety in their own community.”
Anderson believes the move from Santa Rosa to Windsor and
Healdsburg will well serve her students in the long term, providing
them with friendships and contacts where they live. Some will
graduate the program and live independently in the north county.
Others will continue living with family or in group homes.
“We want them to become members of the community instead of
those others,” she said. “It’s all about how independent we can
help them become. There are so many options out there.”
For information on the Bridges Community-Based School or to
inquire about including students in your own business contact North
County Consortium principal Ginger Dale at 837-7487 ext. 115.
