My name is Laurie and my daughter Jill, who is now 21, graduated from Central High School (CHS) almost two years ago. She has Down Syndrome and has Type I Insulin Dependent Diabetes. While attending CHS, Jill participated in all of her PET (Pupil Evaluation Team) meetings and had some definite ideas of what her future would be.

Jill’s dreams and goals for after school were and still are to work and have her own apartment. Some of the challenges that we faced during the transition process at CHS was that the work sites set in place were not adequate for Jill's abilities and goals. The school worked very hard in finding new sites, some in Cornith and new to the school, some out of Cornith. She had some good and varied work experiences.

When Jill was a junior, we started working with Vocational Rehabilitation. The representative would come to the school and we would meet together and talk, so the counselor could get to know Jill. When Jill was a senior, the vocational rehabilitation counselor and the school worked together to find job sites focusing on Jill's interests. Unfortunately, the family was not taught how to undertake this process on our own once Jill graduated. We thought Jill would graduate and slide right into a job. Her life would certainly be different but with a few good adjustments, everyday life would be warm and cozy.

The real world is not so warm and cozy. We had no idea we would have to interview agencies for help in finding a job that would fit Jill. That was scary and a bit overwhelming. Fortunately we chose an excellent agency that has been a tremendous help all along Jill’s journey.

She started work in a small children’s store that was a perfect size and work that Jill loved, but it was not a permanent position. She then went to a large store in the mall, did well and was hired in the housewares stock department. The word “seasonal” position was not mentioned in the hiring but when several people were let go, it was said that they were hired for the Christmas season. So, the hunt was on again.

Jill then went to a large grocery store where she went through the application and interview process and was told she would have the assessment time as a front-end clerk, bagger, and bottle person. She would start the next week. Because of the “store politics” going on, she then was called and told there was no position open at that store– perhaps one of their other stores would have something open. Thanks to the agency, they helped with that. So again Jill was interviewed and okayed to start an assessment. She was hired by that store on May 12, 2003, is still there, and loves every day of it.

One of the biggest challenges that we hadn’t really thought about was–and is–transportation. We live thirty minutes outside of Bangor and no buses run out here! We find it very difficult to find a driver for her. At one of the earlier jobs, a co-worker would pick her up if their schedules coincided but that only happened a couple of times a week. I was able to change my work schedule around to accommodate Jill’s at that time.

At Jill’s new job, the hours vary each day and also the days vary each week, which made it even more difficult to find a driver or for me to even transport her. Through much worry, stress, and finally decision making we decided I would get done work to do the transporting. I’m very fortunate to be in that position right now.

Those are a few obstacles that we have worked through. So, I guess all in all the best advice we could give anyone is to have the information in “all the graduation stuff” given to families at the earliest possible time, not just handouts to read but, someone to explain all the “real world” ins and outs.

As far as Jill’s dreams of having her own apartment, we are still working on that! One step at a time. Hope this will be helpful to all.