LESSONS FOR ‘REAL LIFE’

Winsted-based academy teaches job and life skills to young adults

WINSTED — Shayla Hardy, 20, of New Hartford, works for a different company daily. So do Kieran Fallon, of Barkhamsted, and Cheyenne Saunders, of New Hartford, both 19. They are three of about 19 Northwestern Regional High School graduates taking part in a life-skills program called Highlander Transition Academy.

Maura Viens, HTA program supervisor, said the program is for young adults ages 18-22 with disabilities.

“The program is unique in that it provides them with exposure to a variety of vocational job sites,” Viens said. “So the goal is to help them gain confidence out in the workplace and get exposure to different kinds of settings and have coaching alongside them as they’re learning those skills.”

Highlander Transition Academy began nearly 20 years ago under the umbrella of Shared Services, a Winsted-based Cooperative Education Service Center that provides “specialized programming and special education staff to school districts in Northwestern Connecticut,” according to its website, https://www.sharedservicesct.com/home.

On a rotating basis, students in the Highlander Transition Academy program are introduced to 16 partnering businesses, including Ocean State Job Lot, Walgreens, KidsPlay, Five Points Campus, Five Points Art Gallery, Foodtown, Six Spoons, Barkhamsted School, Northwest Regional7, Spice320, Good Friends Diner, The River, Camp Jewell, Tractor Supply, Winsted Soup Kitchen and Beardsley and Memorial Library in Winsted.

Before COVID-19, students interned at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington. “We don’t have students there right now, but we’re in the works of getting that started up again,” Viens said.

Most students stay in the program for the full four years, she said. After that, “we try to make sure that

they have wraparound supports and they’re connected with other resources that they’ll have in their community as young adults and into adulthood,” she said.

Many students have found employment with one of the partnering companies after they’ve graduated from the program, she said.

Highlander Transition Academy employs 10 teachers, or job coaches, who meet with partnering businesses to determine how a student can help the company while learning real-world skills, such as how to dress for the workplace, how to greet customers and how to be polite, Viens said. “The goal is to have the students working independently with coaching in the background,” she said.

Hardy has been in the program for three years and has worked in almost all of the partnering businesses.

“Recently, I’ve been working in a lot of food places,” she said. “Basically, it’s like kind of moving me towards the food industry and stuff because I worked at McDonald’s once.”

She said she has also worked in a school cafeteria and is leaning toward being a service person.

Fallon has been working with Highlander Transition Academy for over two years. He said he is still trying to figure out which direction to go in, but “My favorite place has been Spice320,” a marketplace in Colebrook, he said.

He is also interested in electronic music, he said.

Saunders is in her first year with the program.

“I’m kind of flexible with almost all the job sites. I kind of like almost all of them, to be honest,” she said.

She said she enjoys learning how to be independent. “This is my way of figuring out, like, how to take care of myself,” she said.

Some of her favorite work sites are KidsPlay and Five Points Art Gallery.

Shellie Poley has been a job coach with Highlander Transition Academy for two years, helping the students understand what each job site requires.

“I love the kids,” she said. “I love working with the kids and seeing how much they’ve grown from the beginning of the school year to the end, seeing them develop skills that they might not have (had) before they came to the program.”

Sarah Sottile, assistant coordinator, has been with Shared Services since 2002 and with Highlander Transition Academy since 2005. She said she loves keeping track of students who have completed the program.

She notices an attitude shift once the students are gainfully employed.

“Sometimes when they’re here, they’re like, ‘Why are we practicing this? You know, this isn’t a real job,’ ” she said. But once they are in an actual employment situation, they appreciate what they’d learned as interns, she said.

Sottile said a man who had been through the Highlander Transition Academy program told her, “I learned from this program how to be on time. I learned, you know, how to dress properly. I learned how to interact with my coworkers and with my boss.”

To explain more about Highlander Transition Academy, leaders and students are preparing an open house at their 55 Oak St., Winsted, location on March 23 from 5-7 p.m. Viens said, “We are inviting families, educators, anyone who really is interested in learning more about the program.”

She said it will be an open forum where guests can chat with job coaches and students. Representatives from the state Department of Developmental Services and the Bureau of Rehabilitation Services will be on hand, she added.

For information, email Maura Viens at mviens@sharedservicesct.com or call 860-7821744.

Jack Sheedy/For Hearst Connecticut Media Valerie Richard, work site supervisor, left, works with Tyler Rae, 20, of Colebrook, a student at Highlander Transition Academy, on a mural that will be displayed during an open house Thursday from 5-7 p.m., at the academy’s site at 55 Oak St., Winsted.

Jack Sheedy/For Hearst Connecticut Media Students in the Highlander Transition Academy program work on a mural of the work sites where they intern, to be displayed at an open house March 23.