Independent Living Skills

Independent living, general

• “I’m Getting Ready” is an interactive workbook that covers everything from finding housing to budgeting, cleaning, cooking, and paying the bills (PDF, 78 p., 2001): www.itsmymove.org/docs/resources/imgettingready.pdf
• Effective Practices: Supporting Youth In School, In the Community and On the Job (PDF, 22 pages) is a set of research-based strategies for building youth skills for adult living and working in the community, from Employment First in Ohio. Skills are divided into:
  • Fundamental Instructional Strategies
  • Community Based Instruction
  • Organizers and Memory Aids
  • Social Skills
  • Autonomy Development and Support

• Friendly tipsheets on education, employment, living skills and more, specifically aimed at young adults with mental health challenges.  Many are suitable for all youth. From Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research in Massachusetts.
• Parenting Cue Cards give you timely focused tips to support your child in developing emotional smarts. You pick out a parenting challenge and quickly click through some dos and don’ts, suggestions on what to say and not say, and why. Greatschools.org worked with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence to develop the tool.
• The National Technical Assistance Center on Transition (NTACT) provides descriptions and lesson plan starters for effective practices and predictors that promote positive post-school outcomes for all students with disabilities. The website is a little hard to use, but full of good stuff. We recommend using their the search box, for example, “banking”, to cut through to content that interests you.

Friendships and relationships

• EasterSeals has real life stories of people exploring dating and love in many forms with first-hand accounts from the frontlines of people living—and loving—with disabilities.
• Friends: Connecting People with Disabilities and Community Members (PDF, 84 pages, 2013)  provides concrete, how-to strategies for supporting relationships between people with disabilities and other community members.
• Elevatus Training offers a free email newsletter, plus curriculum and both online and in-person workshops to help parents, teachers and service providers learn to be comfortable addressing sexuality with people with developmental disabilities.

• Youth in Action! – Serving on Decision-Making Boards is a tip sheet for youth from the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability (NCWD).

  In the video below, You Can Lead Too!: Youth Perspectives on Leadership, young leaders share insights on what it means to be a leader and advocate.
  

Physical & mental health

The website, Tom Bassarear.com, offers a variety of resources to explore and practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is bringing two intentions to whatever you are experiencing. First, the intention to meet what is happening with curiosity and interest. Second, the intention to let it happen, with an attitude of acceptance, non-judging, or kindness.

Youth Mental Health First Aid (video, 14:07-minutes) is an overview of MHFA training modules that teach adults how to help adolescents ages 12-18 who are experiencing mental health or substance abuse issues. From the NH Behavioral Health Collaborative.

Tipsheets from Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research in Massachusetts:

• TTYL: Keeping in Contact With Your Professional (PDF, 2 pages, 2011)
• My Mental Health Rights on Campus (PDF, 2 pages, 2011)

Every year we are learning more about the importance of sleep to physical and mental health. Some good TED talks:

• One more reason to get a good night’s sleep, an 11:42-minute video about the vital house cleaning your brain does while you sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep, the brain cannot function well.
• Our natural sleep cycle is nothing like what we do now, a 4:24-minute video about your body clock and how we were designed to sleep.

For more resources on the transition to adult physical and mental healthcare, see the Healthcare Transition page on this site.

Finances

• The FDIC Money Smart financial education program has a whole pile of free curriculum and resources. It’s updated regularly and includes both instructor-led curriculum and online games and resources. Included:
  • Money Smart for Young Adults (ages 16-24)
  • Money Smart curriculum for Young People – versions for grades Pre-K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12
  • Money Smart Podcast Network – portable audio (MP3) version of Money Smart. 
• Telling Your Money What to Do: The Young Adult’s Guide (PDF, 4 pages, 2023) is a youth-friendly tipsheet from Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research in Massachusetts.
• A STABLE Account is an investment account available to eligible individuals with disabilities. STABLE Accounts allow individuals with disabilities to save and invest money without losing eligibility for certain public benefits programs, like Medicaid or SSI. Earnings in a STABLE Account are not subject to federal income taxes, as long as you spend them on Qualified Disability Expenses. The website, STABLENH, is easy to use. Find quick answers on their FAQ page. STABLE NH is only available to New Hampshire residents, but residents of other states can open a STABLE Account by visiting Ohio’s STABLE Account website.
• Jump$tart is a coalition of organizations that share a commitment to advancing financial literacy among preschool through college-age youth. They provide a clearinghouse of financial education curricula. Check out the online Reality Check activity where students see if they can afford their dream life.
• My “Must Have” Papers (PDF, 2 pages, 2023), from Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research in Massachusetts. For youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions with tips about keeping and protecting important personal records and information.
• Personal Financial Literacy Bellringers (PPT, 49 slides) are designed to be short journaling activities. From the Zarrow Center.
• The National Disability Institute has free financial well-being tools, including a toolkit for Inclusive Financial Education.
• How Learning and Thinking Differences Can Make It Hard to Manage Money from understood.org.
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI) What Happens to Your SSI When You Turn 18? (PDF, 1 page, 2011) from Transitions to Adulthood Center for Research in Massachusetts.
• Personal Finance Glossary, from businesspundit.com.

Recreation & adaptive sports

• Northeast Passage empowers individuals with disabilities to define, pursue, and achieve their therapeutic recreation and adaptive sports goals.
• New England Healing Sports Association (NEHSA) is a volunteer, non-profit organization operated by and for individuals with disabilities to integrate individuals with disabilities into society through social and recreational activities.
• Granite State Adaptive Sports provides individuals who have a disability the opportunity to develop independence, confidence, life skills and fitness through participation in sports, therapy, training and recreation programs.
• New England Disabled Sports offers student athletes an extensive selection of summer and winter programs for individuals looking for recreation, as well as aspiring competitive athletes of all ages and disabilities.
• NH Special Olympics provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
• Social Inclusion Through Recreation provides information and practical strategies for achieving social inclusion through recreation for people with intellectual and other disabilities. From New Brunswick.
• The Paralympics take place every four years in the same year and city as the Olympic Games. One organizing committee is responsible for hosting both the Olympic and the Paralympic Games. The link provides history of the Paralympics, videos, podcasts, and interviews with athletes.

Summer camps

NH Camps Directory lists private-independent, agency, and not-for-profit camps; religious-based camps and nonsectarian camps; day camps and overnight camps. You can search and filter the list several ways.

Search for camps nationwide based on specific medical conditions on NeedyMeds. You can also search on non-medical conditions, such as social, emotional, psychological or educational issues or even bereavement.

Housing

Transition Planning for New Hampshire’s Highly Mobile Youth (PDF, 114 pages, 2014) was designed by young adults recently transitioned for young people beginning the journey. It is specifically aimed at youth experiencing homelessness, but will be useful for a wider audience too. There are sections on finance and money, job and career, establishing your legal identity, life skills, self care and health, housing, and community and more. The housing section is full of good basic information for youth heading out on their own.

Community Support and Housing and Resource Guide (PDF, 37 pages, 2017) was developed by Granite State Independent Living in partnership with the UNH Institute for Health Policy and Practice. It lists contact information for many types of resources: local housing, NH Housing Authorities, legal, household items, and more.

New Hampshire Housing promotes, finances, and supports housing solutions for the people of New Hampshire.

211 is New Hampshire’s statewide information and referral service. Just call 211 to be connected, at no cost, with trained specialists who can provide you with the health and human service information to get help, give help or discover options. On a cell phone, if 211 by itself does not work, call 866-444-4211 instead. (211 by itself should work on most cell phones.)

Transportation

• Information about international travel for travelers with disabilities, from the U.S Department of State.
• Information about the 2009 expanded Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) which requires certain accommodations, facilities, and services to be available.
• Disability law guidance from the Federal Transit Authority
• NH public transportation map (PDF, 1 page, 2019)
• Accessibility and travel training resources from the MBTA. There are lots – keep on scrolling down their page.
• A Guide to Travel Training (PDF, 60 pages, 2009) from the RideWise program in Oregon. An oldie but goodie.

Disaster planning

The Red Cross booklet, Preparing for Disaster for People with Disabilities and other Special Needs (PDF, 20 pages, 2014), guides you through planning for an emergency or a disaster.