Program helps families bond over their kids
A five-year-old program in the Miami Valley has made life easier for hundreds of families of children with disabilities.
School to Adult Life Transition is a free, multi-county resource offering monthly sessions in Montgomery, Greene and Warren Counties. The program is designed to help high school graduates with developmental disabilities overcome barriers to employment and navigate healthy adult relationships.
Formatted as a monthly series from September through May, each session is identical between all three counties. Examples of session topics covered include “Employment Planning,” “Understanding Guardianship and the Alternatives,” “Relationships, Friendships and Dating” and “Financial Planning.”
“I think five years has been the magic number,” said Patti Shrom, SALT series director.
Since its beginning in 2015, the program’s participation has grown tremendously, Shrom said. What started as 10 to 15 families attending the sessions is now closer to 60 families some months.
Shrom, a parent herself of a child with a disability, was feeling lost as her son was just three months away from graduating high school. Her family felt in the dark about their son’s next step into adulthood, and it wasn’t until attending an informational event that they started to find a path towards employment for their son.
“You felt like you were isolated or very rare when you’re sitting in the IEP (Individualized Education Program) meetings,” Shrom said. “You feel like you’re just by yourself going through this.”
In 2015, Shrom took her family’s experience and organized with other local leaders to make the path easier for all Dayton-area families.
“There was nothing really formally organized to help families and student prepare,” said Amy Banks, communications specialist at Montgomery County Board of Developmental Disabilities Services. “Not just understand adult life, but successfully navigate the road to employment and how to live independently.”
Andrea Harker, school to work employment specialist at MCBDDS, said she has watched a family attend the SALT sessions since the beginning and has witnessed the family come full circle.
“During that time, they were able to get guardianship, social security, disability. She was able to accomplish these things and she is now graduated, connected with an adult case worker, working within the community and all of these things she did over the course (of SALT).”
While parents attend SALT, teens between ages 14 and 22 are encouraged to SALTTEENS at the same time to socialize with their peers, participating in fun interactive activities to help them prepare for the transition from school to adult life.
Families interested in attending SALT can visit mcbdds.org and navigate to the ‘services’ tab to see the full SALT schedule. The next session is planned for Feb. 26 in Warren County where families will learn about Relationships, Friendships and Dating.