education

Rose came to GiGi’s to develop her communication skills. I was presented with a lovely young lady who was nonverbal, very shy, and heavily dependent on her tablet to assist her in connecting with the world. She even struggled with making eye contact early on. I decided the best way to help Rose was to…

GiGi Prep is a progressive learning program for adults, comprised of modular programs that meet twice a week for 12 weeks that encompass Confident U, Healthy U, and Whole U. The GiGi Prep program emphasizes communication skills, money management, customer service skills, team building, and wellness. This program is an application based program with high…

It’s always the biggest accomplishment when we have a student surpass what anyone expected. Far too often, people believe that it’s too late for adults with Down syndrome to learn and thrive in certain areas of their life. This month, we are highlighting the accomplishments of Shizuka, one of our amazing interns in Hugs and…

Our volunteer spotlight for this month is none other than Sally Marquis! Sally has dedicated hundreds, if not thousands, of hours to support the Hugs and Mugs professional internships and develop the program into what it has become today. Sally is more than an amazing volunteer- she is the backbone of Hugs and Mugs and an…

These days in GiGi U and GiGi Prep, our students have been working very hard on their money skills. They especially love when we play Money Uno to practice coin identification. Recently we have been working on adding up enough money to buy an item, or picking out what item to buy with the amount…