‘Adulting 101 Laramie’ Program Offers Chance to Learn Valuable Life Skills

A life-skills class put together by a number of Laramie organizations is helping recently-graduated students to transition from going to school to living as an adult.

The series of courses, dubbed “Adulting 101 Laramie” is being organized by a number of community partners such as UniWyo Federal Credit Union, Wyoming Independent Living, the Department of Workforce Services and the Albany County Public Library.

Annette Mello, Workforce Center manager for the Laramie and Rawlins Workforce Centers, says the class teaches independent living skills that are not taught in the classroom.

“It’s based on going over life skills, from things like basic car maintenance to hygiene to ‘how do I rent an apartment?’ type stuff,” Mello said.  “It also goes over things that are going to be beneficial to them as they go through life and through jobs such as having a good attitude.”

Mello said there are also classes through LCCC that will cover all the aspects of looking for and applying to higher education institutions. Mello said this includes the application process for school, different programs available and financial aid.

Aside from learning valuable life skills, Mello said some applicants can qualify to get paid up to $475 for attending the courses and afterwards will be placed in a job with a local employer and get 400 hours of work experience.  Mello said the employee’s wages would be reimbursed through the Adulting 101 program.

Mello said that while not everyone may not qualify for that aspect of the program, anyone is welcome to apply, as there is no age limit and the program is free and it is welcome to anyone who wants to gain the information taught in the program.

Adulting 101 Laramie was formed after a member of the Albany County School District No. 1 approached the Department of Workforce Services, saying there was a need for kids who were graduating school and going into jobs.

“There was just this gap of, they didn’t know some of these basic things to go from going to school from going to work,” Mello said. “So the workforce center put together a youth program, it was called Laramie Youth Works. We did that a number of years.”

Mello said after federal funding was adjusted for the Workforce Center, they didn’t have the funding to continue that program. Mello said she contacted some of their partners and other community members who came together to volunteer their time and resources to create Adulting Laramie 101.

This is the second year the Adulting 101 program has been offered. Mello said last year was the pilot of the program. The application deadline is Feb. 2 and the applications are available on the Adulting 101 Facebook page, or emailing Mello at annette.mello@wyo.gov or Ruth Troyanek RTroyanek@albanycountylibrary.org.

The classes start on Feb. 6 and there are two sessions every week of the program. The first class will be held at the Benchmark Building with Wyoming Independent Living.