New facility aims to teach basic life skills
Men with mild intellectual disabilities learn skills like meal planning, safety
The first of its kind for H.E.L.P. Homes of Regina, a uniquely designed house will soon be built to help people with intellectual disabilities realize their potential.
The new house is part of the organization’s Building Residential Independence through Diversity, Guidance and Education (BRIDGE) program, which teaches adults with intellectual disabilities the life skills they need for independent living. (H.E.L.P. stands for hope, education, love and protection.)
The new house will replace the program’s current base, a rental home located on Douglas Park Crescent.
“The ability for them to open their eyes and see how much potential they all have can be kind of challenging because they’re so used to not feeling like everybody else,” said Sanjay Baksh, a group living worker for the BRIDGE Program.
Baksh, attending a soil turning ceremony for the new house on Tuesday, shared what the most difficult part of his job is during his day-to-day interactions with the program participants.
“Convincing them that they are capable of doing a lot of skills that everyone else can do and they have every right to do, can sometimes be hard,” he said. “But once they see it, it’s definitely worthwhile.”
Running since 2010, the program teaches adult men with mild intellectual disabilities independent living skills like meal planning, budgeting, housekeeping, safety, community involvement and more over the course of two years.
The design of the new home, to be built at 2075 Wallace St., will be tailored to the needs of the participants and will include a training room, which H.E.L.P. Homes of Regina’s executive director Sherry McKinnon hopes will allow people to progress through the program quicker and therefore increase the program’s capacity.
“They have the potential and the desire to live on their own. They just haven’t had the opportunity to learn the skills,” said McKinnon. “That’s what that program gives them. It gives them the opportunity to learn the skills and to realize their dream of having their own home.”
There have been eight individuals complete the program and go on to live in their own apartments.
Wayne Main and Brad Frei are two of those graduates, who are now roommates.
Main has even gained full-time work at SARCAN Recycling.
He said he enjoys having the new skills the BRIDGE Program has taught him.
Frei enjoys spending time going for walks, movies and playing video games with his roommate.
“I like staying where I am,” said Frei, who used to live with family until he went through the program. He and Main are now part of the Supported Living Program, which provides some supports to those living on their own.
“I’m doing pretty good,” he said. For Baksh, seeing the participants graduate and hearing how well they are doing months or years later, has been the most rewarding part of his work.
“We shouldn’t take a lot of credit because we are just opening their eyes to what they ’re capable of doing,” he said.
Once this new home is built, McKinnon said H.E.L.P. Homes of Regina, which also operates six group homes, hopes to look at expanding the BRIDGE program to assist women as well.