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Teens learning real life skills in Acadia Parish

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Posted at 8:44 AM, Jun 09, 2021
and last updated 2021-06-09 10:29:07-04

While the kids are out of school for summer, you might be begging them to do anything productive.

In Acadia Parish, a summer program is in place that will get them on track not just for now, but for life.

"You get into adulthood and start doing adult things and realize I wish somebody would have taught me this or showed me how to do this," says Claire Dore, who is the programming and outreach librarian in Acadia Parish.

Not everybody grows up learning the basic skills we're expected to have a grasp on as adults, like how to iron shirts or write a check.

"I grew up in a large family and my sister and mother did most of the housework. As I got older, I'm single now. I had to learn from the bottom up," says Mike Boudreaux of Crowley.

At the Acadia Parish Library, they believe teens shouldn't have to wait until they're on their own to learn these things. Starting June 16 and running for the next few Wednesdays, they'll host free classes on money skills, people skills and house skills.

"I just would like for them to have a better grasp on how to handle themselves in situations that come up and to be able to function in society the best they can because i know they can. Just the trial and error part I would like for that to be smaller than it usually is," says Dore.

These summer classes, she hopes, are the beginning of a bigger plan.

"I'm actually interested if any of the area schools would like us to come in and present these things. I am outreach I can do that. Especially when it comes to money skills and budgeting, those sort of things. We thought of maybe getting financial people involved trying to do some courses on specific things."

If you would like to get your child involved, visitthe library's Facebook page.