A new program for young adults in Delray Beach is helping them bridge the gap between school and adulthood.

Space of Mind’s Launch Pad program trains them in the essential skills they need as they approach the next phase of their lives.

“I’m just about to go on to my fourth week, and even in that short period of time, I’ve still learned so much,” Jack Froling, a Launch Pad student, said.

Jack Froling, 21, is becoming the man he wants to be through the Launch Pad program.

“Where I was at college, it just didn’t feel like it was what I wanted to do. It didn’t feel like it was, like, helping me towards the future I wanted to make [for] myself,” Froling said.

In January, he enrolled in Launch Pad.

It trains young adults ages 18 to 26 in essential skills they need, from workforce training and life coaching to teaching them to meal prep and allowing them to live independently.

“A lot of the times, our education system doesn’t quite highlight life skills, like how to book a doctor’s appointment or the importance of everything that we maybe take for granted as adults,” Hunter Isbell, the vice president of adulting programs at Space of Mind, said.

One of the areas Froling said he needed help with is interviewing for a job.

He wants to be a mechanic, and with Launch Pad’s help, he navigated an internship interview at a local garage successfully.

“I’ve always found one-on-one help to be like a very big thing for me. And that’s all I’ve gotten since I’ve gotten here. We focus on what I need to do, and it’s like they only focus on your specific thing when you need it,” Froling said.

Right now, the program is in its infancy with just a few students, but progress like what Froling has made is gratifying for the instructors at Launch Pad.

“It’s a long game. So, you don’t always see — sometimes it takes a while to see, you know, to really get the light bulb moment, but you know, we’re patient, and every little thing that we do is to get to that final goal. But when we do get there, it feels amazing,” Isbell said.

Go to Article