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By Kendyl Galbraith Public Relations/Communications Intern
While Christian Carraghan was in school, he did not have the time for a job. A Berks County resident, he faced a long commute to and from The Vista School each day for about 10 years. His mother, Judy, said, “We were just doing odd jobs around the neighborhood, like washing windows and things like that, but he wasn’t getting paid for it.”
With the help of Vista Adult Services, Christian landed his first real job in the laundry room at Keystone Villa, Douglassville (Berks County), in July 2015. Judy said that Christian really took to his job and coworkers at Keystone. He was able to complete loads of laundry start to finish on his own. Keystone was able to help Christian meet more people in the community and also gave him his first real paycheck. He spent a portion of his first paycheck on buying ice cream with his own money.
In December 2015, Christian handed in his resignation to Keystone because of his upcoming move to a Vista home in Dauphin County. After the move, and with the help of staff at the Vista Adult Services Community Integration Center, Christian will continue his search for a job closer to his new home.
Christian will be living for his first time without his parents when he moves into his own home. His housemates are two other men of adult age who are current Vista students. A transition to the adult world from school may be difficult for individuals with autism as well as their families. In his new home, staff will be available to help the men with everyday activities as needed. As adults, though, the men won’t have the one-to-one support they usually had as students.
As a parent, Judy is excited for Christian to “have the feeling that he’s got control over his own life” and to know “that we’re here but we’re not. We don’t have to be with him all the time for him to do what he wants to do.”
For the parents and for Christian, this is a big change, but Judy finds comfort in knowing that at Vista, parents have access to their adult children 24/7. She said, “First of all, I probably would never give him to anybody but Vista. I know them. I know the quality of care they are going to give him is excellent and I’m not worried about that.”
“I think it’s just the beginning. So we’re going to stay tuned,” she said.
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