Bridge Builder: Learning in a Real-Life Classroom
Our Bridge Builder Project frequently gets mistaken for a recreational program because we’re supporting participants with disabilities to explore their interests. A typical day for our Bridge Builder team involves going to places like libraries, coffee shops, gyms, and animal shelters. Exploring hobbies and interests helps with overall well-being and promotes health, but that’s not the only reason we’re in these spaces.
We do the work in the places and spaces we do because individuals with disabilities learn best by practicing skills in a real world environment. Joining a book club or live action role play group is recreational, but it’s also where our participants are most likely to learn the skills for how to be independent at those and other activities in the future.
To better understand this, let’s do a quick task analysis. What steps does it take for a Bridge Builder participant to join a board game group? Our typical participant is in their early 20’s, living with their parents, and spends a lot of time alone. Their main source of transportation is their parents, and their social skills are still developing. In order to independently attend a board game group, they’ll need to know how to:
- get ready on their own in weather appropriate apparel
- keep a calendar
- leave the house on time
- figure out transportation to and from
- manage money for any transportation or group related costs
- navigate a community space to find the accessible entrance, meeting room, bathrooms, water fountain, etc.
- introduce themselves to strangers and ask for help
- know how to take turns and follow social norms
- learn new games in a group setting
- have fun even if you’re not winning
- keep track of time
This is quite a list of tasks, and they can’t all be learned at once. Participating in a real community group regularly allows Bridge Builder participants to practice these skills with the support of trained staff who know how to scaffold teaching and support progress. Each skill develops on its own timeline, and it can take a long time before participants are capable of putting them all together independently.
It may work for some folks to learn these skills in a classroom setting, but best practice for teaching adults with disabilities is through real-life experiences. The reason we focus on hobbies and interests as the driver of this skill building is fairly simple: doing something you enjoy is motivating and gives meaning to the process of learning something difficult.
We are so proud of the work that our Bridge Builder team does and the impact they have on the participants we support. Since 2009, our Bridge Builder Project has supported over 200 individuals with disabilities to build life skills through community participation and inclusion. If you want to support our efforts to build skills and create inclusive communities, you can donate here.
– Stefanie Primm, Executive Director