Can Regional Center help my child learn independent living skills?

Some young adults with disabilities need explicit instruction to help them develop the skills needed to live independently, such as cooking, riding the bus, shopping, and managing money.

If your young adult is a Regional Center client, your Regional Center should have several options for helping learn life skills or adaptive skills. Independent Living Skills and Supported Living skills programs both focus on helping someone manage their independence. Independent Living Skills is about getting someone out of a group or home environment to live independently, and Supported Living Skills is for those already living independently to help them stay there. Your young adult can be living at home with you and still receive Independent Living Skills services.

Regional Centers also offer Personal Assistant services where the client can get assigned someone 1:1 to help with their overall needs. It's a very flexible resource to help an individual with activities of daily living (ADL) and personal care. Social-rec usually cannot be covered by PA hours.

If you want a more social aspect for your young adult, Community Integrated Training Programs can help with navigating their community and accessing events and general community-based life skills.

It might also be worth looking into community day programs that focus on building life skills. To find them, go to your Regional Center's website and see who is vendored with them. All Regional Centers must post a list on their website of all organizations that are vendored and thus supported by Regional Center.

Different Regional Centers offer different services, so ask your service coordinator about your options. This will also depend on if your young adult accesses traditional Regional Center services or if they are in the Self-Determination Program, which provides more flexibility to hire a personal assistant or executive functioning coach.

For more information, see our article The Transition to Adulthood: Public Benefits for Young Adults with Disabilities in California or work through our step-by-step walkthrough of Regional Center services for adults.