Food, Drinks, and Workability

Image Description: High School Student, unnamed, participating in the SDUHSD Workability Program at a local grocery store. Photo courtesy of the San Dieguito Union High School District online page.

San Diego: Preparing Students With IDD For Their Future

To my recent discovery, I found that my Best Buddies aide at the Torrey Pines High School Best Buddies Chapter was leaving campus a few days out of the week and walking to the nearby mall and local movie theater with a handful of students. This aide explained to me that she was bringing her students to the local Cinepolis, which our program has partnered with, and the students were acting as interns in the theater. They were completing tasks that ranged from scooping popcorn to filling drinks, and she hoped that one day they would take the orders of customers. As I began to look into this program a little deeper, I found a vast, decade-long history of student enrichment. 

Trisha Dempsey, Instructional Assistant and Aide

I interviewed Trisha Dempsey, a student aide at Torrey Pines High School, about the Workability Program in her workplace. Dempsey began working at Torrey Pines in the year 2008 and watched the Workability Program come to fruition in 2015. 

Since then, Torrey Pines, La Costa Canyon, Coastal Academy, and San Dieguito Academy have implemented the Food, Drinks, and Workability Program. This program is designed to help students with IDD adjust into adult transitions and teach students important vocational skills. Notably, the Torrey Pines Program only permits juniors and seniors to leave campus during school hours to participate, which is consistent with the off-campus laws that are held to General Education students. 

Dempsey remarks that she “...used to have a student when we went to the PetSmart in Solana Beach that would just start dancing when the other workers played music while he swept the floors of the store - just dancing!” She found that most of the participating students have enjoyed the Workability Program at Torrey Pines. Dempsey also gave an anecdotal account of a female participant, who she said, would use cosmetic makeup ‘samples’ when they went to CVS for job readiness. 

The program itself is riddled with positive experiences, whether geared for students' professional development or personal growth. The simple act of socialization is consequential for the further development of students with IDD. 

Throughout her career, Dempsey found that the staff at each company that is partnered with, specifically CVS, enjoys interacting with the students. The San Dieguito Union High School District  (SDUHSD) Workability Program organizes the tasks, and Mary Courtney (past Workability staff) worked with the managers at Cinepolis to set up job responsibilities for students with IDD. At Jimbo's Grocery Chain, students were tasked with cleaning as well as organizing shelves, checking expired items, and taking said expired items to the backroom for disposal. At Cinepolis, students get hands-on experience by drying popcorn bowls, cleaning menus, folding napkins around silverware, washing tables, and sweeping floors. 

The current head of the SDUHSD Special Education Workability, Elizabeth Delval, has been recognized as phenomenal at what she does, and Trisha Dempsey has high expectations for the future. In my interview with Dempsey, she acknowledges that, “it's a good experience for them...some of our students have gone on to get paying jobs." 

She walked me through students past and present that have been involved with the Workability Program, and what it has done for them. A young man that was a part of Torrey Pines Best Buddies when I joined in August 2022 but has since graduated. Dempsey said, "He's [now] working at HomeGoods and getting paid.” She elaborates further, telling me, “other students were at Ralphs and VONS being baggers, and now they are getting paid too.” 

As a student at Torrey Pines High School with an eighteen-year-old brother who has IDD and has been educated within the SDUHSD, I have understatedly excited hopes for the Workability Program, whether that be in San Diego, or further down the line for Best Buddies.

In friendship, 

Marlo Roberts

YLC Member, California