The VAST program is a partnership between Homewood Public Library and Homewood Flossmoor High School that provides vocational training and life skills to 18-21 year old students. Students spend half their day working on skills in a classroom and the other half interning at various job sites, including the library. The library facilitates the program by providing meaningful tasks for the students to complete under supervision of a program graduate. Both the library and the VAST program benefit from the partnership by accomplishing more through the students' assistance and by providing opportunities for growth.

1. VAST Kids-Success in
Collaboration
A partnership between the
Homewood Public Library
And Homewood Flossmoor High School

2. What is the VAST program?
•
The object of the VAST Program is to promote student independence, decision-making, selfadvocacy, vocational competencies and development of life skills in natural occurring
environments. VAST provides a life/work experience for 18-21 year old students in
community-based job sites. Instructional activities focus on enabling students to adjust to
situations that they may encounter in their post secondary life experience. Guest speakers and
field trips enhance instructional units by providing real life settings for practical application of
skills. Students must have department chair’s consent to participate in this program. For half
of the school day the students stay in the VAST room and work on three areas listed below
with just a few examples of the specific skills we work on:
•
•
Living skills: cooking, maintaining a healthy diet, laundry, ironing, basic first aide
Vocational skills: following directions, accepting constructive criticism, appropriate behavior
at the job site
Academic skills: learning to keep a checking account, completing job applications, locate
information on the computer, in a phone book or in the park district catalog
The other half of the day the students go to job sites in the community with an adult job
coach. They are generally at several different job sites throughout the week to expose them to
a variety of job skills, coworkers and managers. They earn a paycheck every month and the
job coach completes evaluations each day on their performance and behavior, including a
timesheet to determine the amount of hours worked in a month.
•
•
http://www.hfhighschool.org/clubs-and-activities/vast-program/

3. How Does the Program Work?
• Every special education student has a yearly meeting to
discuss their IEP and their progress in their current program.
Then the future is discussed so at a senior student's meeting,
the team will suggest VAST for students that would be
benefit from the program. Then the parents and the student
usually come to visit VAST and then they decide if they
would like to come into VAST the following school year.
Districts have to have a program for students with an IEP
from age 3 until the day before their 22nd birthday. So my
students exit the program at all times of the year.
• The students are in the classroom for half the day working
on living and vocational skills and then they go to a job site
in the community for the other half of the day, most students
work with a job coach.

4. How does the library facilitate the
VAST program?
Nichol, a graduate of the program, is their
immediate supervisor. She meets and greets the
group when they come in, sets out their projects,
and makes sure that the projects match up with their
skill level.
Two other staff members, one from youth and one
from administrative services, check in on the group
periodically and help Nichol create a schedule of
projects from staff members that need to be done.

5. How did the partnership between the
VAST program the
Homewood Library begin?
• The VAST Program began in 2000 because
Homewood Flossmoor High School had
so many students age 18-21 that it was
more cost effective to start our own
program rather than send all those students
to an outside placement.

6. How has the partnership evolved?
• Homewood Flossmoor High School needed a transition
program for its 18-21 year old students who needed
living and vocational skills. The first year the school
had about 6 job sites, including the Homewood Library.
Now the school has 16 job sites, 2 teachers, and 5 job
coaches. The library has always had jobs for the
students to complete, but the last few years the school
feels that the library has made the work experience
even more meaningful because the library has specific
tasks for the students, a room where they can work
most days, and when the students arrive they know
where to go to get started on their tasks for the day
which makes them feel more independent.

7. Elements of a Successful Program
• Discuss the level of abilities so that the
librarian could plan appropriately for the tasks
to assign each shift
• Be flexible with the school and the changes
they made need to make
• Make the students feel welcome, valuable and
appreciated

8. Who comes to the library from VAST?
A group of students and job coaches from the
VAST program come to the library for two hours
three times a week. Different students may come
on different days and be given different tasks
depending on their skill level.

9. VAST helps the Friends of the Library
• cleaning donations to get
them ready for resale
• wrapping packages of
books to make them
more appealing as gifts

10. VAST helps the Youth Department
• Creating and hanging up
displays
• Setting up for programs
• Cleaning toys, board
books, and tables in the
youth area
• Preparing craft projects
and other materials for
programs
• Marking off deleted
books
• And much, much more!

11. What does the library gain from the
VAST students?
• Vast students assist other volunteers and staff
members with a variety of projects so that
together we can accomplish so much more for
our community’s library
• A creative way to provide opportunities for
intellectual and personal growth to a
potentially underserved population
• Demonstrates to our community that the
library is a welcoming place for all

12. VAST graduates in the library
• The library now employs two graduates of
VAST (one supervises
• The director of the program notes that every
student who has participated in the VAST
program has expressed a desire to continue
working at the library
• VAST graduates have become familiar with
staff and now enjoy visiting and volunteering
at the library

13. Through this partnership we have
become advocates for each other
• Libraries need patrons who value the resources
and opportunities we offer to them and their
children.
• Individuals who have special needs and their
families need help connecting with resources.
People who have special needs need a place
where their gifts, talents, and service will be
met with open arms.

14. Contact Information
Homewood Flossmoor High School
Mary LaBotz (708) 799-3000 ext. 5347
Homewood Public Library
Sarah Gearhart (708) 798-0121 ext. 284
sarahg@homewoodlibrary.net