What is the Life Skills Center?Life Skills is the area at Connections that focuses on providing our participants with the ability to learn appropriate communication, literacy, decision making, problem solving, adaptive & positive behavior and providing the tools they need to deal with the demands and challenges of everyday life in work, home or out in the community.
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Life Skills Center GoalsTo empower our participants to learn, practice, and use the provided information and tools independently in their every day life.
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Classes offered in the Life Skills Center:
Beginner Cooking Class
Many of our participants show the desire to learn to cook for themselves. As a precursor to our Connections Café class, our clients can take Beginning Cooking to learn the cooking basics!
BudgetingMoney is an essential part of everyday life. As many of our participants have some responsibility over their own finances, it is important for them to have support in learning to manage their money wisely! In Budgeting they work on written math problems, practice recognizing the value of money,and understanding the cost of common products.
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Book ClubBook Club is an advanced reading group. The group particularly likes to read chapter books. After finishing a book, they reward themselves by watching the movie adaptation!
Calendars & PlanningThis class focuses on providing an opportunity for the visually impaired to learn ways that will integrate them in their surrounding areas. Some techniques they utilize are: sight guiding and squaring up to walls, learning how to read and understand their weekly schedule, using a Braille machine to create calendars and schedules, braille-adapted games and other activities.
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Celebration Group
The Celebration Group members are real party animals! They make all the arrangements for each holiday, birthday, party, or celebration we have. They love to express their creativity through their decorations and event planning. Connections' wonderful events are due to the creative genius of this group’s members. Community OutingLife Skills has several community outing groups throughout the week. These groups might do a little shopping, sight-seeing or participate in events going on in Tucson. It's always great to get out and build friendships in our community.
Language ClassNot all of us communicate in the same way. For those of us that use sign language or read Braille, Language Class is a great time for us to practice those skills! We facilitate our participants' communication with whatever means necessary at Connections.
Reading GroupThe Reading Group is geared towards our participants that need some support learning how to read. This group also practices projecting their voice and reciting and repeating words from books, magazines, newspapers, etc.
World HistoryWorld History offers participants a chance to learn about the world that surrounds us. Each month a new topic of interest is explored in a four part lesson series. We have observed everything from the Ancient Greeks to the Renaissance (and beyond!) through interactive lessons, stories, and the occasional game.
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The Farm to Table group has a beautiful plot at the Presidio Community Garden in Midtown. They go each week to tend to our vegetable garden and volunteer their time to keep the entire community garden spotless!
ComputersIn computer class, we learn the terms and skills to use hardware and software components of our system. Participants begin with the experience they already have and advance at their own pace by exploring, researching, problem solving, reading, and enjoying topics of personal interest.
Connections CaféConnections Café provides an opportunity for our participants that already demonstrate some cooking skills to practice the art and try out some new recipes! The group selects a recipe, shops for the ingredients, then works together to create a delicious meal for the participants in one of our four areas on a rotating schedule.
Ladies' Social SkillsLadies Social Skills is a class for our female participants that focuses on etiquette and other life skills. A few subjects they discuss are the importance of respecting the privacy of others, gift giving, being honest and table manners.
Library GroupOur various Library Groups give our participants an opportunity to read, get involved in the community and learn further responsibility. Each participant gets their own library card and is responsible for remembering to return the checked out item either on the following library visit or by the due date.
Science ClassScience class has fun trying out different experiments and projects. They plan their activities themselves and go shopping for all the necessary supplies! There is nothing better than having fun while we learn!
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| Download our Life Skills Newsletter.pdf |