Tonya's Vocational Day at Nadrasca Services on February 27

February 27th I was whisked around Nadrasca services. Nadrasca provides services to individuals with support needs in a variety of settings.  My fist surprise was when I walked in to their prevocational program and saw a HUGE warehouse with over 150 employees.  Not only does Nadrasca support individuals in prevocational training, but they also have their own print shop and an amazing warehouse management system.  The employees were working hard and many enthusiastically showed me what they were working on and proudly proclaimed that they made money while working. 

My next surprise was their art based day program. Four participants were working on personal art projects. These art projects were not the traditional craft projects that you see in many day programs, but were instead artwork that you would see displayed in any gallery or for sale at an art studio. If I had room in my luggage I would  have purchased one of the mosaics, paintings, or sculptures they had displayed. Robyn, one of the participants, noticed me carrying around my camera, and asked for me to take a picture. After a short paparazzi session I toured several other day programs and ended at their Farm. 

The Farm is a large plot of land in the middle of the city where 20 clients participate in farm and gardening activities complete with caring for four sheep. The participants gave me a tour of the grounds, and talked about what crops were growing and which failed this last season. The staff all stated that the clients had shown remarkable progress in the programming over the last couple of years, and some had moved on to commercial landscaping and gardening services due to the skills the learned in the program. I was very impressed in the farm and the outcomes that clients were experiencing.

In the evening I attended the Rotary Youth Services Dinner where I learned about the local youth projects that Rotary supports or hosts. There were an number of in-depth programs offered for youth and young adults, and it was inspiring to hear from several of the youth who participated in programs over the last year.