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A huge, floppy black-and-tan toy dog with a spiked collar sat patiently as the two Tacoma Public Schools (TPS) students carefully looked him over for tears or other problems that could lessen his value if not repairable. Kristal McDonald found a hole near its eye and she noted the fabric collar was coming apart while Evan Johnston held the dog upright. Sorting and examining donated toys is one of the many tasks that students in the school district’s Community Based Transition Program (CBTP) perform at their work site at St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store at 4009 S. 56th St.
The Community Based Transition Program (CBTP) is a Career and Technical Education (CTE)/ World of Work program in the Tacoma Public Schools for students 18–21 years of age who have been identified as having one or more disabilities. The program combines the expertise of Special Education and CTE staff members to provide participants job and life skills training, and whenever possible, job placement. Students are in training six hours a day, five days a week. They do not earn wages while working at a community site, but they earn a .5 credit per semester upon completion of requirements.
The aim of CBTP is to prepare students for full integration into the community, with emphasis on employment, independence and community access. The students’ learning occurs in an environment that supports and encourages integrity, personal choice and self-reliance.
St. Vincent de Paul’s Thrift Store sold more artificial Christmas trees this past year than ever before. Why? Because CBTP students decided to assemble the artificial trees and placed them all around the thrift store so people could see what the trees really looked like—not just seeing a bunch of branches stuffed in a box.
The students perform many different tasks through the work site training program, under the watchful eye and guidance of job coach Patty Truax who keeps each one on task and gives plenty of encouragement every day to her students in the CBTP. Because she has an average of five students at St. Vincent de Paul’s, she is able to give one-on-one training, teaching the students how to work in retail and coaching them in tasks from cashiering to pricing to sorting and packaging donations..
The young people have organized a corner of a warehouse building, labeling the wall for year-round holidays, filling plastic see-through tubs with seasonal items and piling them high against the wall. Throughout the thrift store, the students have been making a difference and are respected for the work they do. Truax said the St. Vincent de Paul staff is wonderful to work with and the partnership is working well for the students.
“The CBTP trainees do a tremendous number of tasks for this site and for our community,” said Debbie Jackson, a district occupational therapist with CBTP. “Their work at St. Vincent de Paul’s enables more products to be sold quickly and this helps raise money for people who need help paying their utility bills, rent and food. The trainees are allowed to grow as workers and are given responsibilities. The employees of St. Vincent de Paul’s respect not only the work the students do, but also for who the students are.” Jackson pointed out that Truax is doing a terrific job with the trainees and is a great representative of the Tacoma Public Schools in this community-based site.
Other CBTP training sites include Head Start/Tone, Metro Parks greenhouse, MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital and Park Avenue. The students rotate to these sites to get different experiences and see where they fit best. “Evan Johnson, for example, worked at the hospital for a while, but found that was not his niche,” said Truax. “He asked to return to St. Vincent de Paul’s and is now a lead worker doing cashiering as well as other tasks. He’s doing an excellent job here.” Kristal McDonald’s goal is to work in child care, so she has rotated to the Head Start/Tone site to work with young children.
Students stay in the transition program until they are 21. After the end of that school year, services will end, then program staff members help the students transition to adult life, link them up with local resources and job coaches and help them with the job application process and interviewing skills.
Contact Cathy Sanderson, Special Education transition specialist, at 253.571.1394 for more information on CBTP.