Julia Huscher enjoys coming to work, working the register and helping customers.
The 22-year-old graduate of the Adult Transition Program in Community High School District 218 is employed at the recently opened High 5 Heights in Palos Heights.
“It’s really good for me and it gets me out and more exercise,” said Huscher, who also works at Chick-fil-A in Chicago Ridge, helping guests and cleaning tables. “I also get to work with the customers and students.”
According to one of her supervisors, Huscher is being modest.
“Julia is very, very skilled and could run this store,” said Kerri Piscitelli, special education director for District 218, which opened High 5 Heights in late November.
The 2,000 square foot store sells custom clothing, seasonal décor, greeting cards, and woodcraft, all created by students and other adults with special needs. Adjacent to the store is a job training facility with equipment such as a heat transfer press and Cricut machine where students learn skills such as laser engraving, embroidery and graphic design. Students also are trained in customer service.
The store is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays and most Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
It expands on High 5 Apparel, which has been run out of the district’s program in Oak Lawn for 10 years and where students produce products sold on campus, fairs or pop-up shops.
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“Due to the increasing numbers, we were running out of space and kind of needed to expand,” Piscitelli said
Teachers and job coaches work with students to help them “prepare for life after they age out of the program and can eventually become competitively employed or go onto the next venture they choose,” she said.
Program coordinator Alison Wilde said the store and training site were important additions “to really focus on that training aspect and provide our students with the opportunity to gain the skills needed to be employable and successful and build their independence.”
“What we see in this additional site is a real-world classroom,” she said. “They get that socialization aspect, where they’re interacting with customers.”
Students also order, inventory and display sale products. Kerry McNichols, the program’s vocational coordinator, manages the store with other district staff.
Piscitelli and Sue Feeney, associate superintendent, were looking for sites when they found the site at 12213 S. Harlem Ave. that once housed a dry cleaning business. The real estate agent was the mom of a student at Shepard High School.
Word got out, and at its opening Nov. 29 the store was packed with people and customers lined up at the cash registers.
Palos Heights Mayor Bob Straz heard about the plans months ago from Superintendent Josh Barron and was all in. Straz has been a board member of Sertoma Centre, Inc. in Alsip for decades, which has services for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities and runs school transition programs for districts.
“It gives people, when out of the ATP program, the sense they can make a living and be useful to society,” said Straz. “Self-esteem is so important to kids at this age and they’re hardworking kids.
“These kids want to work. They don’t want to sit in the classroom and do nothing.”
The store and training also are good for the community, Straz said, offering an array of products and training for students who might later go on to work at nearby businesses. He pointed out that while mom-and-pop stores are all but gone, this one offered people the “feel-good factor.” Plus the store is right next to the city’s municipal parking lot, where the annual Kriss Kringle Market was recently held.
“It’s something where we can really help people and that’s what government is all about,” Straz said.
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.