Taft College's TIL program is a little known gem in Taft, California. TIL stands for Transition to Independent Living. This is a program designed to help adults with mild to moderate mental disabilities. You may think that TIL would be just like any other program for adults with disabilities in the area, but that is where you are wrong. TIL is the first of it's kind! The program has been around since 1995 and was founded/created by Jeff Ross and Kathy Evarts. They began with about five students, and now they have about forty students this year, and many more trying to get into the program. What sets aside the TIL program is that it's a two year program in which the students are taught to be able to successfully live on their own and live on campus in dorms. The TIL program has also had people from other countries come to observe it in the hopes of emulating the program back where they are from.
The students live on campus in dorms, away from their parents (many for the first time). They are taught basic living skills such as how to make their beds, how to do laundry, how to set an alarm clock, and how to change a battery in a fire alarm and much more. Students are also given jobs through the program in order for them to learn how to work, get experience working, and have an income of their own.
A typical week day for these students consists of classes that teach the students a wide range of skills. Some of the classes include housekeeping, personal safety, job skills, and shopping.These classes are aimed to help the student be able to live independently after graduating from the program. For example in their housekeeping class students learn how to organize, clean floors, cleaning bathrooms, and keeping their environment clean and safe. In the student's job skills class they do jobs that involve food prep, janitorial, customer service, and/or retail. Through this class students have jobs through local places such as Little Caesars, Goodwill, and on the Taft College campus.
On the weekends students get to have some fun with the weekend staff. The students enjoy activities ranging from movie days in the lounge, to trips to six flags on the weekends. Each weekend has specific activities that are planned, such as art, a birthday party, or a trip to a renaissance fair. Students sign up for these activities before hand and are required to budget the amount of money needed to go to the event if it's needed. In participating in these activities the students gain a wealth of skills they otherwise wouldn't have the opportunity to otherwise learn. When students take a trip to the mall they learn how to maneuver the bus system from Taft to Bakersfield, how to budget money to buy something they would like, how to budget money to still have lunch, how to interact in the given situation. When students take trips to museums or other similar places, they get a chance to learn about the history of the place, how to admire the artwork, how to use indoor voices, how to interact with displays. Each trip gives students a chance to learn and practice many valuable life skills that a person like me or you might overlook. I believe the weekend portion of the TIL program to be a major part of the learning process.
