Life Transition Always in All Ways

School:: Naples High
Subject:: Special Needs Students
Teacher:: Mike Wexler
Students Impacted:: 11
Grade:: Adult Ed.
Date:: August 15, 2019

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

Suncoast Credit Union Foundation - $2,000.00

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 10

Good morning:

As I write this with a heavy heart due to what has transpired within our world, I want to say that up until March, your contribution proved to be exponnential to our NHS Transition program.

Your contribution during the 2019-2020 school year allowed us to purchase new work site shirts, enjoy activities within our local community, dine at some of our great resturants in Naples, and attend events.

As our year was cut short, we were very saddened that we were not able to hold our annual end of the year banquet to be held this month. For the first time, we had secured a great venue within the outstanding community of Grey Oaks and their country club.

I apologize if this narrative doesn't come off as the most uplifting as my team and I have built a very strong transition program in our community for then it to be untimely and completely stripped from us. We've not only lost out on the remainder of the school year but many of our job sites were forced to close as well, and most of our students who were part time employees outside of school lost their jobs as well. We hope that we are able to come back and come back strong continuing to assist transition students in the local community and in the work force.

grant photo

Original Grant Overview

Goal

Our goal is to get our students ready for the workforce with the expectations of securing them employment while in our program or thereafter.

What will be done with my students

Our Naples High School transition program is a post graduate educational platform that offers graduating seniors with disabilities who had participated in the Unique modified curriculum or IBI2 (autism) units during their diploma track.

The families of our students have the option of deferring their son/daughter(s) diploma for continuation of public school services per their individual education plan (IEP).

Within our program, our students learn life skills as well as intricate daily components to assist them with future employment opportunities. While in our program, the students intern (job shadow) at a wide variety of job sites within our local community. We currently have 23 job sites which is more than any other school in our county.

Our students are clustered into 2 categories:

Independent interns – Student works unassisted at a job site where they are supervised by that specific job sites employees and management team

Assisted interns – Student works assisted with either our NHS assistant(s) or job coach on a specific job site. They are supervised by CCPS employees.

Our goal is to get our students ready for the workforce with the expectations of securing them employment while in our program or thereafter.

We also have a component inside our program that involves hobbies and leisure activities. This was unveiled this past fall. We have integrated that with work experience in our local community and it proved to be extremely successful.

We have a very active unit as our students are heavily involved in the Special Olympics, both local and regional. We have paddle board champs, track champs, bowling champs, and golf champs to name a few. Our goal is always about inclusivity in and around our community.

Benefits to my students

This program has and will help with the following –

• New job site shirts
• End of the year banquet
• Leisure activities for our students while in our program
o Shows, fishing, bowling, movies, air boat ride, meals off campus
• Financial assistance for programs outside of school
o Seminars, vocational/college programs, job trainings, career fairs, etc…
• In 2018-2019 Each student (27) received a cash bonus of $75, an NHS shirt, and a brand new pair of Asics sneakers all in part to financial contributions like yours and others who represent our community.

Budget Narrative

Transition Uniforms $300 - Each one of our 32 career experience and transition students are required to wear a polo shirt that is issued by us to their job sites on a daily basis. We provide 2 different shirts for different days of the week.

Leisure Activities $1000 - This was unveiled this past fall. We have integrated that with work experience in our local community and it proved to be extremely successful. This will help fund students for a variety of events that we partake in.

*Naples Players
*Cycle Guroo
*Lunch
*Fishing
*Movies
*Pickle Ball Tournament
*Air boat rides
*Bowling
*Holiday Shopping

Vocational and Job Training $200 - Providing some assistance to our students and families by helping with job growth and vocational opportunities. We have also purchased clothing for a student who achieved PT employment.

End of the year banquet $500

*Assist with end of the year prizes and rewards for our students

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Transition Uniforms	$300.00
2	Leisure Activities	$1,000.00
3	Vocational and Job Training	$200.00
4	End of the Year Banquet	$500.00
	Total:	$2,000.00

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