Those with intellectual and developmental disabilities are being offered a college-like experience. Broken Arrow’s New Leaf is offering a two-year transition academy. New Leaf Executive Director Mary Ogle says it will include dorm life and classes on an actual college campus.
The program will be taught on a Tulsa Community College Campus. The students will be taught life skills needed to live independently, like balancing a checkbook to making and keeping doctor appointments. They will do this while living in a dormitory setting at an Owasso facility.
Ogle says everyone wants to live independently, but for such people it is not often possible because they lack coping skills. This program will teach those skills while mimicking college life.
According to Ogle, over 80 percent of those with intellectual and developmental disabilities are unemployed. The second year of the program will focus on job training through Tulsa Tech programs.
The first classes begin in July.