As SIAST students, the Way to Work students have access to Kelsey campus resources, including the library, fitness and weight rooms, the gym, cafeteria and counselling services, and are integrated into the social and recreational activities of the Basic Education Department and wider campus life. The students’ presence on campus allows Kelsey staff to develop an understanding of the challenges faced by individuals with intellectual disabilities. Their inclusion encourages other Kelsey campus students to accept inclusion as the ordinary course of life and to think about how, as potential future employers and citizens generally, they can accommodate people with disabilities.

During the Way to Work program, participants have increased their social skills, strengthened their lifeskills, developed independent living skills, improved physical fitness, acquired awareness of socially acceptable hygiene and grooming, practiced communication skills, redefined their employment goals and learned new job skills. With each success, the students grew in confidence and self-esteem. Participants practised social skills when attending presentations and video showings at the public library, joined in concerts with other Kelsey students, and welcomed international English as a Second Language students who visited the program. They also proudly prepared for and hosted classroom coffee parties.

Once a month, the class enjoyed shopping for groceries, prepared nutritious meals and, of course, ate heartily together. They cooked such meals as jaloff rice, chili, salads, sandwiches, veggies and dip, fruit salad, instant puddings and Rice Krispie squares. One woman who had never cooked before showed real skill, took a new interest in food preparation and then tried a work placement in a hotel kitchen. Another student, having never lived before on her own, made excellent use of the cooking lessons as she had moved to the city to attend the Way to Work program. She made great strides toward independent living: Shopping, cooking, cleaning, doing laundry and making new friends. When it came time for her first work placement, she was frightened to ride the buses alone. However, after an instructor rode the bus route with her for the first time, she took the bus confidently, even to meet friends and to shop at suburban malls on the weekends.