Independent Living Skills for Community Living

Learning to navigate through the community setting independently is all part of a disabled person's goals towards Independence. Independent living skills are the skills people need to communicate on a work-related and personal level, navigate through work settings, be safe in the environment he is currently in and care for his appearance so he does not appear sloppy or smelly. Mastering these skills takes time, energy and working with caregivers and job coaches to get the skills down pat.

Personal Care and Personal Appearance

• A person who wants to live and work independently in the community needs to know how to groom and care for her appearance. Hygiene, clean clothes and a neat exterior allows people to navigate the world in a socially acceptable way. These skills are essential to keep your body from smelling, keep diseases away and maintain social norms. Learning to perform these skills independently or with limited assistance helps a disabled person live a more independent lifestyle.

Social Skills

• A person who wants to live independently and interact within his community needs to have a set of polite social skills for interacting with others on a daily basis. Social skills include communication skills and social interactions. Individuals who want to live independently need to know how to speak to strangers, how to ask cashiers and waitresses for what they want and how to interact with others so he can have his needs met.

Safety in Public

• Public safety skills include knowing when it is safe to talk to a stranger, knowing the proper way to cross the street and knowing how to manage through public transportation. Having the knowledge to know when a situation is an emergency and how to contact emergency personnel is also important when spending time in a public setting. Learning these skills is important because it helps to keep the individual remain safe in a public setting and keeps the individual from accidentally hurting herself or others

Vocational Skills

• Sometimes individuals who want to be independent in the community get jobs. If an individual gets a job, he needs to learn the vocational skills necessary to keep that job and succeed at it. Learning to perform the vocational skills allows him to perform the job independently or with the assistance of a job coach. Practicing the vocational skills on a regular basis and learning new vocational skills lets him get good at his job and improve within the community setting at work.