Because I have tended to focus primarily on support the Educarte program provides for younger children with disabilities, this month I would like to shine a bright light on the importance of our new life skills program for young adults with disabilities. For all people, including those without disabilities, life skills are critical to functioning successfully in our daily lives. For young adults with disabilities, gaining essential life and vocational skills is a key factor in health, social inclusion, independent living, financial security, and overall quality of life.

Tragically, because public schools in Mexico are not required to serve children with special needs, most disabled adults in Rocky Point have never had the chance to go to school. Consequently, many young adults with disabilities in this community have spent their early years at home, isolated from their peers and without the opportunity to learn important academic and life skills. Unfortunately, this leaves most of these adults with almost no chance of living independently, becoming employed or participating fully in their community.

This past August Educarte opened Escuela de Victoria, the first ever private special education school in Rocky Point. While two of the new school’s classrooms serve younger children from kindergarten through 5th grade, one classroom serves a group of very special young adults. While the students in this classroom spend time learning academic skills, much of the focus of the curriculum is on teaching basic life skills.

Basic life skills are generally categorized as:

  • Social skills: interacting appropriately with others, engaging in effective communication, and developing healthy relationships.
  • Thinking skills: developing different solutions to a particular problem and being willing to learn new things.
  • Emotional skills: having knowledge of who you are and regulating emotions appropriately.

Why are Life Skills Important for Young Adults with Disabilities?

People with disabilities experience a variety of barriers to participating fully in their community:

  • Pace: The fast-paced society is particularly taxing for individuals who have a slower speed of processing. The challenges are multiplied when people also have a physical disability.
  • Complexity: Many written instructions for household items are crowded on to pages, written in lengthy sentences with an overuse of abbreviations and complex jargon.
  • Literacy: A high percentage of individuals with disabilities also have low literacy rates. This may not only be due to intellectual disability, but because of fewer opportunities for high-quality educational strategies.
  • Stigma: This is perhaps the most problematic barrier to the development of meaningful life skills for young adults with disabilities. It’s a stereotype that people with disabilities must be controlled or supervised. Although supervision may be necessary at times, there are indeed situations where someone with a disability is completely capable of performing independent living skills and being fully included within the fabric of the community.

In the United States, adults with disabilities have a steep hill to climb in their journey towards greater independence and equal opportunity in the community. However, they typically have access to a variety of support services including vocational training programs, independent living services, mobility assistance, transportation support, assistive technology, specialized healthcare and more. Because there are very few services for disabled adults in Puerto Peñasco, the barriers to independence they face are much greater and, often, impossible to overcome.

We are excited to begin changing this story through our new life skills classroom. Although only opened since August, we are thrilled with the progress the young adults in this class have made in such a short time. In addition to traditional academic skills, the students are learning a variety of skills that will help them live more independently and, hopefully, have the chance to be gainfully employed in the future. One of the areas of focus this semester has been teaching skills needed for jobs in food service. After spending a lot of time learning in the classroom, thanks to our friends at La Negrita restaurant, our older students recently were able to practice their skills by serving a Thanksgiving meal to their families. It was a very exciting experience for the students and we could not be prouder of them. It was also a very emotional day for their families, and more than a few tears were shed as parents were able to envision a better future for their adult children.

We are excited to provide more opportunities like this for our students in 2025 and are already busy preparing some wonderful monthly partnerships with local restaurants. Stay tuned for more information on how you can attend a special event where you will be served delicious food served by some very special young adults.

You can make a tax-deductible donation to support our efforts to give more young people with disabilities hope for a better future at www.AmigosEducarte.org.