NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. – A school for students with developmental and learning disabilities in Tampa Bay started a transitional program to help its students enter the workforce.
Pepin Academies has schools across the Tampa Bay area dedicated to students with developmental and learning disabilities.
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Pepin Academies in New Port Richey is partnering with Baycare Morton Plant North Bay Hospital to give its graduates additional training beyond the classroom.
What is Pepin Academies’ Transition Program?
The partnership offers workforce training to Pepin Academies graduates between 18 and 22 years old.
“Their focus has predominantly been on education. They’re also learning how to be independent in their community, how to be able to take care of themselves, how to be able to prepare their meals, take care of their time management, be able to understand how to apply and look for work,” Carolyn Kinney, the assistant principal at Pepin Academies’ New Port Richey Campus, said.
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What we know:
Kinney said a lot of their students and graduates need more support and training before they enter the adult world. She said the partenrship with Baycare Morton Plant North Bay Hospital allows her students to work in an internship-style setting.
They learn different jobs around the hospital, including custodial jobs, working in the kitchen and at the nurses’ station.
“I will help them prepare rooms for new patients,” said Linska Johnson, who has participated in the program since it began. “When I’m at the nurses station, I’ll help them with paperwork and bring in waters and other things to patient rooms.”
This is the third year of the partnership program. The Pepin graduates are able to learn tangible skills that they can carry with them into the workforce.
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“They’re not necessarily going to have to be in a pipeline to work in a hospital,” Brandon May, the President of Baycare Morton Plant North Bay Hospital, said. “You know, food services, they can work in restaurants, they can work anywhere else like a retail store.”
What they’re saying:
“When you feel like you’re contributing, and you have a purpose, then you feel it’s rewarding,” Kinney said.
Kinney said her graduates are also learning lifestyle skills that they need in adulthood, like time management and working as a team with their peers.
“A lot of what we’re teaching, too, is soft skills,” Daniel Bosco, a job coach with Pepin Academies, said. “Getting them to be more comfortable around people, especially in this day and age where it’s all video games and texting.”
Kinney said the partnership program gives her graduates a purpose that they may not have been able to find on a traditional educational path.
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“This is everything that I find rewarding, is being able to watch our students develop and grow and mature, but then be able to have the resources available to help them and be able to give back,” Kinney said.
She said a lot of these young adults go on to college, independent or straight into the workforce.
What you can do:
Pepin Academies’ transition program lasts through the school year, and it’s funded through federal grants and by Baycare. You can find more information about the transition program here.
The Source: The information in this story was provided by the assistant principal and a job coach with Pepin Academies, a participant in the program and the president of Baycare Morton Plant North Bay Hospital.