Independent Living Skills

Definition: All students develop skills for independent living through direct instruction and/or added support as necessary.

Independent living, general

  • 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

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:

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

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

Finances

 

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

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.

New content 8-25-23