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Community Experience Programs

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The Kennedy Center Community Experience Programs, also entitled Day Support Options (DSO), are located in various neighborhood settings and support small groups of individuals with a myriad of abilities and disabilities. Each program emphasizes the development of an appropriate skill base to expand learning, choice-making and inclusion within each person’s local community.

As of September 2010 we support 21 programs across nine communities including Newtown, Stratford, Milford, Southbury, Woodbridge, Trumbull, Bridgeport, Fairfield and Monroe. Our settings include five school transition programs, two autism-specific sites, one program designed to support people in supported employment and a cadre of programs serving specific needs from senior services, to PICA free environments, to sites supporting adaptive equipment and on-site physical therapy and/or nursing, to high energy, age-specific programming.

Employment opportunities are evident in a number of our programs, in addition to our employment-specific site. For some of our recent high school grads, a period of time in a DSO program may serve as a “transition period” towards working full/part time in the community. For other individuals, their careers have moved towards a semi-retirement status and greatly enjoy the slower pace of volunteering.

Central to all of our programs is an emphasis on respect, dignity and choice. The Expressive Arts including music, visual arts, dance, yoga, film and creative writing are unique components of each setting that enhances the underlying theme of self-direction and creativity.

For more information, please contact The Kennedy Center Intake and Transition Manager at 203.365.8522, ext. 248 or email.