KIVA program helps students with disabilities enhance life skills

By Robert Nott | The New Mexican

3/4/2012

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Independent-transitions

Randy Mares couldn't decide if he was more nervous about his job applications or the fact that he was about to perform some dance routines in front of an audience at the Mary Esther Gonzales Senior Center on Alto Street on Friday morning.

But preparing for the workforce and displaying social skills -- via ballroom dancing -- are all part of Santa Fe Public Schools' KIVA program. KIVA, which stands for Keeping Independent Visions Alive, helps students with disabilities transition from high school into the community by teaching them life skills and emphasizing independence.

"We teach them what most teens do intuitively," said Alice Giovinco, rehabilitation counselor for the district's special education transition services. "If you teach them the skills -- and they have to learn via a hands-on approach wherein you teach them over and over and over again -- some of them are capable of holding part-time jobs."

The students are all graduates of Santa Fe Public Schools, which has about 2,500 special-education students enrolled. KIVA's participants, who range in age from 18 to 22, attend daily sessions that include talks on job opportunities, classes in body movement and dance, and visits to local nonprofits where they work as volunteers.

One day they might work at the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society grooming animals and cleaning kennels, and the next day they might be packing lunches at Kitchen Angels. According to Giovinco, many Santa Fe nonprofits have supported the program by offering work opportunities.

"I'm very appreciative of these community agencies. Without their help we would be campus-based, and you can't teach these kids what they need to know in a classroom," she said. (KIVA does have a home base at the Academy at Larragoite School on Agua Fría Street.)

Teresa Norton, Food Services Director for Kitchen Angels, said she has been relying on KIVA students to help out for about five years. "They do things that need to be done, that are simple to do," she said. "Some wash dirty trays, some fold clothes, some of them separate and line up bags for us -- we send our meals out in bags. I'm not afraid to ask them to do anything that I need done."

Giovinco said the program began about nine years ago. It employs her, two teachers, and several teacher aides so that students can receive as much one-on-one training as possible.

Among other tasks, the teachers assist the students in figuring out how to use the city's public-transportation system. Students and teachers get to ride for free, thanks to councilor Carmichael Dominguez and Mayor David Coss, Giovinco said.

KIVA instructor Dino Roybal, who has taken ballroom dance lessons, gave the students dance lessons in swing, salsa, country western and waltzing to prepare for Friday's concert. Student Mares did just fine when it came to dancing, and he took part in singing some Ritchie Valens tunes at the concert, too.

Roybal said dancing teaches the students social and communication skills and hand-eye coordination.

A few of the KIVA students hold part-time jobs at local restaurants, Giovinco said. She noted that several national employment studies indicate that employees with disabilities have high workforce performance ratings, better retention rates and less absenteeism in the workplace.

She said KIVA has limited funding and she's always looking for new sources or grants to support it. Donations to the program can be made via Santa Fe Partners in Education, www.sfpartnersineducation.org.

"By the time they leave this program, they have developed skills to help transition to a more active adult life," Giovinco said of the KIVA students. "Otherwise they just transition to the TV."