Making A Difference: Students with disabilities inspirational on the job

www.sahuaritasun.com

At the Green Valley Community Food Bank, Josh Maxwell-Dutton thoroughly enjoys his job of bagging bulk rice, beans and pet food, as well as dusting warehouse shelves and sweeping the floor.

Maxwell-Dutton, 18, a Project Inspire senior at Sahuarita High School, and fellow student Brenda Lopez, 19, spend two mornings a week at the Food Bank as part of a community-based instruction program that helps teens with disabilities become functional adults, says Judy Fisher, Project Inspire special education teacher at SHS.

Project Inspire, which serves grades K-12 in the Sahuarita Unified School District, supports 17 special-needs students at SHS in and out of the classroom. Most are autistic or have some kind of mental retardation, Fisher said.

Through community-based instruction, the students gain invaluable job and life skills in the classroom and around the school campus.

In the SHS library, they alphabetize and put books away, plus construct, set up and take down special displays. In the cafeteria, they help clean, restock utensils, make lunchtime preparations and work as lunch servers.

Then, the program’s junior and seniors have the opportunity to gain job skills at local businesses such as the Food Bank and Ultimate Image hair and nail salon, Fisher says.

Mary Jane Goodrick, the Food Bank’s manager, says Maxwell-Dutton and Lopez work diligently and “are very receptive to doing whatever we need,” primarily repackaging dried beans, rice and pet food in the warehouse and cleaning shelves.

“We have set them up in a job that is routine, and they know exactly what to do,” Goodrick says, adding that Project Inspire aide Gloria Huerta always accompanies them.

“We really enjoy them. They are very social kids ... and have lots of interaction with our volunteers and staff,” Goodrick says.

Another student who recently completed the program went on to a full-time job as a housekeeper at SUSD’s Early Childhood Center in Green Valley.

“That’s a first for the program,” Fisher proudly points out.

“That’s what this is all about,” she says, “passing the baton to vocational education” and the federal Division of Developmental Disabilities once the student graduates from the high school program, she says.

The community-based instruction is producing positive responses from students, employers, the cafeteria manager and the SHS librarian.

“It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved,” Fisher says, with the students’ self-esteem growing when they have a job to do.

They may need one-on-one assistance from their aides to begin with, but then they become more independent as they learn the job and get accustomed to the routine, Fisher says.

Project Inspire aide Bob Evans finds “our students really do make a difference with both their hard work and their wonderful personalities.”

Lopez and Maxwell-Dutton work well together as a team, and enjoy working at the Food Bank and learning important work-place values, says their aide, Huerta.

For Fisher, community-based instruction is a passion of hers and a way she can give the students the tools she wants them to have.

“My hope is that I give them everything I can in the short time I have them in the hope they become successful adults,” say Fisher, a Quail Creek resident who has worked in special education for 23 years.

Making a Difference features folks who help make Sahuarita a great place to live. To recommend someone for this weekly series, call Karen Walenga at 547-9739, e-mail to kwalenga@gvnews.com or FAX to 625-1603.

How to help

Project Inspire needs more businesses that can put students to work. These could be restaurants, nursing homes or retirement communities, among others.

For details, call Judy Fisher at (520) 625-3502, Ext. 1564, or e-mail her at jfisher@sahuarita.k12.az.us.