COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) -The Branch Intermediate School District’s award winning Pathways to Independence program expanded this fall to Coldwater High School, where it’s known as STEPS.
Pathways was started six years ago at the Waldron Learning Center to help cognitively impaired students 18-to-26 years old whose learning disabilities prevented them from receiving a high school diploma. STEPS stands for student transition employability program equals success.
Pathways to Independence educates students in the skills they need to get a job while creating a network of trusted friends they can count on after graduation. As part of their curriculum, they “up cycle” materials into items which they repurpose for sale.
Julie Johnson, Director of the program for the ISD, was a speaker this month at a meeting of the Coldwater Early Bird Exchange Club. She explained that part of the profits from the sale items are given to organizations and individuals with donations this year for the Humane Society of Branch County with money also going to a Coldwater family that lost everything in a fire.
Johnson says they are always they looking for more businesses to participate in Pathways to Independence. Some of their current 11 students are employed in Coldwater at Meijer and Voltek.
