Learning Links School takes creative approach in teaching special needs students the skills to open spa product store

South Florida students with special requirements are learning specific valuable life skills in a creative way Jordan Kissane shows us in this Spotlight The shelves at this South Florida store are lined with handmade scented candles soaps and scrubs Daniella candidate The favorite one is Cactus Flower and Jade They re all made by students from Learning Links a school for children and young adults with autism and other disabilities Students receive an teaching and are taught skills that can later help them find jobs Yarisa Echevarria Founder of Learning Links Life skills and certain skills that don t necessarily come natural to our students and we help them through that We give them the hands on to make all these things that they learn all of a sudden make sense to them Professor Very good Kathy Amazing A limited years ago students at Learning Links were able to take what they learned in class and create their own line of scented spa products Martina Baldwin Undertaking Director So we make scrubs and we also make soaps and we make diffusers and we also make room sprays We help them out with measurements and things like that placements of the wicks making sure that they re doing it themselves but maintaining the quality of the product as well The products were a hit so they started selling them online and at local farmer s markets After a minimal years the school decided it was time for the students to open their own store in the Hammocks district in Southwest Miami-Dade Daniella Welcome to Beyond Links Marketplace Yarisa Echevarria So everything in the store is made by the students Students are involved in every aspect of the business here at Beyond Links Marketplace from creating the products to selling them Yarisa Echevarria Everything from taking orders fulfilling orders creating the product labeling packaging and working the front of the store customer utility you know register Beyond Links Marketplace held its grand opening over the weekend Daniella The Beyond Links Marketplace is open for business It gave students like Daniella an opportunity to work with customers Daniella I worked at the cashier for the customers and I reported Have a nice day to everyone else and everyone was very proud of me Yarisa is proud to see these young adults thrive Yarisa Echevarria And I think the key the goal for this venture is to let our group know how great our kids are and how much talent and how a large number of skills they have if they re just given the right chance She hopes it shows them that creating candles can help them create a brighter future Jordan Kissane News If you know of a person place or group that you think we should highlight email us at spotlight wsvn com