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Health & Fitness

The Children's Institute Offers Career Education Program

Students at The Children’s Institute (TCI) are learning to become more independent and productive members of their communities through TCI’s Career Education program.

 

The Children’s Institute, non-profit schools for children ages preschool to age 21 on the autism spectrum in Verona and Livingston, offers a Community-Based Instruction Program and a Community-Based Work Experience Program through its Career Education Program. In the Community-Based Instruction Program, TCI takes students out in the community to stores, banks and restaurants, helping them develop valuable social and life skills including shopping, budgeting money, purchasing and preparing nutritious meals and applying appropriate behaviors when eating in restaurants and other social situations.

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In TCI’s Community-Based Work Experience Program, students gain valuable experience working at jobs at TCI and in the community. At TCI, students learn to make things which they sell. For example, the Middle School has a May Market where students create jewelry and other items which they sell to staff and families. The High School offers Friday Coffee Cart where students make and sell everything from quiche to muffins and crumb cakes.

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TCI High School students in Livingston travel to the Verona campus once a week to help preschool children in their art classes as well as to different job sites where they gain valuable work experience.

 

Several High School students work at The Words Bookstore in Maplewood, where they learn to stock shelves, price books and check inventory. "It has been a pleasure working with students from The Children's Institute,” said Words Bookstore owner Jonah Zimiles. ”They take their work very seriously and have become an asset to The Words Bookstore. They bring a tremendous spirit to our bookstore. I know that the skills we are teaching them will help them become integral members of the community."

 

In addition, several high school students travel to the Bethwood Caterers in Totowa where they set tables, fill tea boxes and fold napkins for weddings, banquets and other special events. “For the past few years, the Bethwood has had the privilege of working with TCI and providing a workplace for some really wonderful students,” said Jason Baldanza, senior vice president of the Bethwood. “I have had the chance to meet many of them and their team leaders, and can attest that it is a real pleasure to watch them work together. We hope to provide them with a stimulating environment that will also offer them a real world work experience.”

 

Students also work at many retail stores including “Bari’s Baubles,” a women’s clothing and accessories boutique in Caldwell where they price clothing, handle stock and even help customers. On a recent trip, one student helped a customer find a blouse in her size. The student then brought it to her dressing room.

 

The goal of the Community Based Work Experience Program (CBWE) is to prepare our young adults for the competitive work world, said TCI Transition Coordinator Leanne Hesse. “We hope to provide programmatic work-oriented experience that allows students to apply life and social skills, academic subject matter and core curriculum standards outside classroom settings.

 

Students also have the opportunity to work in established businesses and apply the skills they have learned at TCI at real places of employment, which will help them prepare for future careers in the work force, Hesse said. “Offering students structured opportunities at different work sites helps them develop work habits that are prerequisites for future employment,” she said. “These experiences place an emphasis on skills required to help them successfully transition to the work place and community.”

 

TCI also offers a Center for Independence in Livingston, for adults on the spectrum, who also participate in a career education program. For more information on TCI, please visit www.tcischool.org. For more information on the adult program, please visit www.tciadults.org.

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