Gigi’s smile says it all—she is happy being with her peers at the Lighthouse, and she’s super excited about working this summer.
Gigi is a 15-year-old student in the Teen’s Pre-Employment Transition Program. When Gigi entered the program last fall, like many teens, she was more interested in keeping her headphones on and listening to music. However, in the transition program, one of our goals is to help our teens make new friends and learn valuable social skills, which they will use for the rest of their lives. So, once Gigi really got going in the program, and started making friends, she began to get excited. She also started developing adaptive skills such as safe cooking techniques and using computers with magnification software and text-to-speech capabilities. Lighthouse Instructor and Social Worker Heather Tuck said, “Gigi has made tremendous improvements in the program and is blossoming into her own individual identity. We’re sure she will continue to have fun and strengthen her friendships as she is learning.”
Many of the teens Gigi knows, and a few others, will be with her in our upcoming summer camp. Gigi sent us an email recently saying that she is super excited about the summer program and wants to do her volunteer work experience with animals. The Lighthouse has had a long-term partnership with the SPCA, and again this summer, we will work with them and several other local agencies to provide our teens with volunteer work experiences that will help fulfill each agency’s mission, while we fulfill ours by helping teens who are visually impaired and blind get important early employment skills.
Clients like Gigi, in the Teen’s Pre-Employment Transition Program, are provided with training to develop essential skills for transitioning into adult life, employment, and higher education. Training includes job readiness, daily living, computers, technology, orientation & mobility (white cane/safe movement), recreation, socializing, and supervised work experiences. You can help our teens succeed—we are always looking for donations to help purchase food and supplies for the teen program. Thank you for your consideration.
Lighthouse programs and services are made possible by our generous donors and supporters. We need one-time donations and regular donations so we are able to provide important Lighthouse programs. Your donation helps people who are visually impaired and blind with developing independent living skills such as using the white cane, braille reading and writing, computers and other technical devices, and safe cooking.
You can help in several ways:
Thank you for your consideration.