Every weekday
Life Skills 3
Music and the performing arts as the way in to competency and people skills, with fitness, academics, community service and outings.
Chapter 01
Music and the arts are the way in
Life Skills 3 at ProjectFREE starts from a plain idea: people build skills faster when they are doing something they care about. So the program frames itself around music and the creative and performing arts, and uses them as a vehicle for building competency and people skills. A member working out a chorus, a scene or a glaze is also practicing listening, patience, taking a turn and asking for what they need.
It is the same idea Kim Costanzo, Tony Costanzo, Sharon Vanderlinde and the late Rosemary Dempsey built ProjectFREE on in 2009. The arts are not a reward saved for later. They are the method. At 2026 51st Street South in Gulfport, Life Skills 3 sits alongside Free2Rock Academy, RisingSTARZ Theater Group and the Gallery and Studios, so a member can learn something in one program and use it in front of other people in another.
Volunteers at a ProjectFREE food drive table under a red tent
Fitness, academics and service
Music is the way in, not the whole program. Life Skills 3 also includes physical fitness, academics and community service, so the work covers body, mind and neighborhood. The people in it are artists, musicians, actors and students, and the program is built to make room for all four.
Community service is where the program steps outside its own walls. It includes food drives, and the photo on this page shows one of ProjectFREE's food drive tables under a red tent. Showing up on time, working beside other people and talking with neighbors you have not met are skills that count anywhere.
Giving back also puts members on the other side of the table. They are the ones handing help out, not the ones waiting to receive it, and that changes how a person stands in a room.
Chapter 03
Fishing, bowling, hikes and festivals
Life Skills 3 gets people out of the building. Outings include fishing, bowling, nature hikes, movies and local festivals, the ordinary things people do with a free afternoon. Each one is also practice: planning the day, getting there, paying, waiting a turn and finding the way back to the group.
To ask about a place, call (727) 603-0595 and talk to the team. ProjectFREE does not publish fees. Life Skills programs sit within Florida APD services, so the first call to make is the one about funding. If you would like to see the program before you decide, ask to book a visit, and read about Adult Day Training and Free2Rock Academy to see where Life Skills 3 fits in the week.
ProjectFREE has run arts-led programs for adults with diverse abilities since 2009, and holds a 5.0 Google rating from 13 reviews.