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Top two rows: Images from the summer BOSS program

Bottom row: Photos from Summer With A Purpose

Becoming the Boss

Business Opportunity School for Success

The summer has flown by and with it, a flurry of activity has been taking place in The Arc’s Transition and Young Adult Programs (TYAP)!

The Business Opportunity School for Success (BOSS) took young entrepreneurs through the process of pitching, creating, marketing, and selling products; and Summer With A Purpose (SWAP) offered excursions into the community with new friends around the Spokane area.

During the first day of the BOSS sales at the Fairwood Market, Luke Strom’s voice could be heard calling out slogans to everyone drawing near the TYAP booth: “GOAT: Greatest of all tie-dye!”

Strom’s witty takes on some of the products that Team Flying Gator Gamers brought the welcome attention of passersby to the stand. All the weeks of conversations and training in the classrooms had paid off, and the group understood their individual strengths well enough to come together like a well-oiled machine.

Tie-dye shirts, bubbles, slap bracelets and more were sold at farmers markets on Tuesday and Friday from late July through the end of August.

TYAP Manager Kyla Parkins said that watching the growth that the six entrepreneurs underwent over the course of the summer was incredibly rewarding to witness.

“Even though the program only runs a few months, we've seen immense progress and skill development in the BOSS associates. They have surprised and impressed me. Some have found they have a gift for drawing in customers, others have discovered their organizational prowess to keep meticulous inventory notes,” said Parkins.

Confidence in their abilities to thrive in real-life situations was the most important takeaway from the program. As Parkins put it, “They believe in their products and in their abilities, and that is the best result we could hope for in this program.”

Creating Connections

Summer With A Purpose

After a year marked by long periods of isolation, the decision to bring back the Summer With a Purpose Program (SWAP) brought an important social element back into play that many young people with IDD had been missing.

“We weren't sure how successful a program like SWAP would be, but we wanted to give it a try. Overall, we had 11 individuals participate throughout the summer, seven of whom were completely new to our program,” said Parkins.

An unexpected side effect of SWAP was that some of the friendships are on track to continue throughout the school year through the Explorers Program, which connects individuals with IDD to a college-aged mentor.

“We have at least two individuals who will be transitioning to the Explorers Program when the school year starts with mentors they chose after spending time with them during SWAP,” said Parkins. “I am really proud of the social opportunities we were able to provide and the continued support we can offer them now that they're connected with the program.”