A Stitch In Time
A Stitch In Time is a vocational program for youth who are hard to employ as a result of their age and/or emotional or behavioral difficulties. The goal of the program is to assist the participants in developing or strengthening their vocational skills in order to enter competitive employment market. Our long term objective for each participant is to obtain successful employment, in a field of interest, leading to their becoming economically self-sufficient, healthy and productive members of society.
A Stitch In Time encourages the participants to be involved in all aspects of the program, creating beautiful knitted items, using the digital camera to take pictures of them, loading them into the computer to editing the digital shots, then uploading them to the internet venues for sale. This type of hands on environment provides the youth with a sense of accomplishment along with the work, interpersonal, and coping skills necessary to succeed in a community work environment.
A Stitch In Time has been a part of the Living In Safe Alternatives (L.I.S.A., Inc.) community since 2003. The program founder, Jill Schoenfuss, conceived an idea of developing the vocational program where the youth of L.I.S.A, Inc.’s residential programs were given the opportunity to learn vocational skills in a hands-on work experience. An avid knitter, she incorporated knitting into the vocational training and a hands-on retail web based business to assist the participants in learning the skills necessary to be successful out in the community work environment. This is an innovative concept, in that we know of no other program in Connecticut who utilizes knitting as a vocational medium.
In our experience, most teenage girls enjoy engaging in craft activities. Knitting can be an outlet for creative self-expression and fostering self-esteem, but also requires skill to learn, including fine motor and eye-hand coordination, following written directions that involve interpretation of abbreviations and symbols, and mathematic skill. Knitting also has a tangible outcome that requires planning to initiate, patience to follow through and a sense of accomplishment when the project is complete. Additionally, knitting can be a relaxing, stress reducing and constructive hobby which can be learned and enjoyed for years to come. In fact, a majority of our participants do knit in their free time, and most indicated on a survey that they would continue to knit in the future.
A Stitch In Time’s staff understands the challenges involved in working with disadvantaged and troubled young women. They provide guidance, information and feedback in an age appropriate and supportive manner to maximize participant success and self-esteem. Along with their skills in working with the participants, the program’s staff brings with them business experience and knowledge of knitting with the enthusiasm to share that knowledge with others.
A Stitch In Time is located in a small building on the grounds of L.I.S.A. Inc.’s residential program in Plainville, CT. Participants from the agency’s other residential programs are transported to the location for their vocational sessions. The program operates on Mondays and Thursdays from 3 pm to 5pm. Special events and craft fairs assist the participants in learning customer service skills as well as packing and shipping orders from the orders received through the web based stores.
Ongoing support for the program has been provided by the Women & Girls’ Fund of the Main Street Community Foundation, American Savings Foundation, L.I.S.A., Inc. agency reserve funds and income generated from the program business.