Community Based Life Skills

Since 1988, the Bridge Family Center has offered Community Based Life Skills (CBLS) to youth committed to the Department of Children and Families (DCF). 

The program assists adolescents (16 years of age and older) referred by a DCF social worker to begin to develop a high level of self-sufficiency as they move from dependent to independent living. The CBLS program teaches a variety of life skills and acquaints young people with the resources of their communities. Participants are offered incentives to continue the program and are paid a stipend when they successfully complete it. The year-long program combines a core curriculum, group work, and a community awareness segment and includes six months of individualized instruction.

Curriculum
The curriculum, the informational and educational component of CBLS, focuses on a variety of tangible and intangible life skills.  Topics covered may include: 

• Decision-making, goal-setting, and problem-solving
• Financial management
• Transportation 
• Career planning, job search, and interviewing skills
• Housing search and household management skills
• Health care options
• Fitness, nutrition, and meal planning
• Smart shopping
• Consumer information and protection
• Leisure activities
• Self-esteem
• Communication skills
• Relationships and interpersonal skills
• Healthy sexuality education
• Parenting skills

Group Work
Group discussions make the information presented in the classroom more relevant to the young people, and provide a forum where youth can discuss their expectations and fears of going out on their own. Peer support helps relieve anxiety as youth prepare for independence.

Community Awareness
Guest speakers from the community provide useful information and serve as community models and resource contacts for youth. Students go on field trips to various community agencies and services that provide firsthand knowledge of job opportunities, available housing, banking services, community health care, etc.

The emphasis on both self-reliance and community resources helps reduce the isolation youth feel, as well as encouraging them to begin assuming responsibility for managing their own lives. A follow-up study of CBLS graduates showed that the majority are now living on their own, employed, budgeting their income, and making their own decisions. Some have gone on to college or vocational school, and many have expressed an interest in doing so in the future.

Community Housing Assistance Program

The Bridge Family Center Initiated the Community Housing Assistance Program (CHAP) in 1996. This supervised scattered site apartment program for DCF youths 17 years and older, provides support and guidance on the final step to independent, responsible adulthood. Skill development begun in CBLS is put into practice and youth begin to put down roots in a community. Full-time education, part-time work, and regular savings are integral to the program.

About the Director
Bryan Block is the director of the independent living program (ILP). Three case managers monitor individual participants.

Contact information:

Independent Living Program
Bryan Block
Director
The Bridge Family Center
1022 Farmington Avenue
West Hartford, CT  06107
860.597.1555
860.521.8036