Center for Independent Living Options is hosting a five-week job readiness course beginning Wednesday, Jan. 18. This new class will prepare you for employment through self-assessment, creating a plan and setting goals, finding a job, and learning to manage your career.
Participants will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the five-week course, which is held every Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Click here for a flier or email Yonel Robinson for more information.
Applying for a job can be nerve-wracking. Did I hit all the right keywords? Will my skills match what their looking for in this position? Does a real person even look at my résumé?
That’s where a new app called “Tilr” hopes to help. The Cincinnati startup offers an alternative to the traditional recruitment process by matching people to jobs purely on skills that are inserted into an app. Instead of hiring managers relying on keyword matches or titles reflecting previous experience from job seekers’ resumes, an algorithm helps match people to jobs based on the skills employers are looking for. Once a match happens, then the job seeker has an opportunity to accept or decline an available position.
Though originally conceived as a way to help veterans and caregivers re-enter the workforce, Tilr could also help people with disabilities find the right job. Read more in this article from The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Sometimes finding a job can be tough. But with determination and the right supports, people with developmental disabilities are finding work in the community.
The latest video from the Southwestern Ohio Regional Council of Governments and the WORKing Together Collaborative focuses on families and what others can do to help people set goals and succeed, including:
It features Chelsia Carter, who works at McDonald’s and The Arbors, Zachariah McCall, who works at Panera Bread, Garrett Doerr, who works at Kroger, and Rachel Rice, who works three jobs — one at a transportation company, another at Production Services Unlimited, and one at the Warren County Court of Common Pleas.
Without question, 19-year-old Aurora Hobden said, she wants to land a job. The prospect both thrills and frightens her.
Will she be able to manage her emotions? Follow procedures? Multi-task?
“What might be hard is handling the pressure,” Hobden said. “Being able to know what you’re supposed to do and do it and maybe be good at it.”
The Upper Arlington resident is among thousands of Ohioans with developmental disabilities whose path to employment no longer leads — at least not automatically — to a spot in a sheltered workshop. State and federal policies that aim to sharply decrease reliance on programs considered “segregated” are steering more and more would-be workers to jobs in the community.
But that transition, no matter how welcome, can be overwhelming. Many of those seeking work spent years in special-education classes and programs where expectations were gentle and nontypical appearances and behaviors didn’t stand out.
“There are certain things that are accepted in those environments that won’t be in the community,” said Jessica Schollenberger, an instructor and job developer at Greenleaf Job Training Services in Clintonville. She’s helping Hobden and a handful of other young adults enrolled in a new class at Greenleaf that is designed to focus on the soft skills that often make or break job success for people with disabilities.
Read more in this article from The Columbus Dispatch.
YWCA Greater Cincinnati is launching a new six-week training program in response to the growing demand for skilled dining room professionals.
First Course: Certified Dining Room Professional (CDRP) begins Monday, Jan. 23 and will be offered without charge to eligible individuals, thanks to funding support from Procter & Gamble. Prospective students must attend one information session prior to registration:
Classes begin Monday, Jan. 23 and are held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Monday and Tuesday at the YWCA downtown office, 898 Walnut St. Participants also will gain hands-on learning experience at the Duke Energy Convention Center.
Upon completion, students will be eligible to take the CDRP examination and will also receive “black and whites,” the standard restaurant banquet uniform. Transportation to the Convention Center will be provided. Click here for the full press release. Call 513-361-2149 to register or with questions.
Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities recently launched a new website aimed at helping people with disabilities find a job. OOD Works is a job portal where you can learn about vocational rehabilitation services and complete an online assessment.
What is vocational rehabilitation?
These services help individuals with disabilities find a job and be more independent. This involves deciding if a person is eligible, setting an employment goal, putting the goal into a plan, and getting the job services and training needed to get a job. Job coaching and other employment services may also be involved.
The Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati (DSAGC) kicks off its Employment Series tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 29. They’re from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for the next four weeks.
This program provides the tools necessary to obtain and strengthen skills for finding meaningful employment. One will learn about resumes, determining and utilizing their character strengths, professionalism and presenting yourself, and interviewing skills. Each participant will take part in mock interviews in the final week of the series.
Registration and other details available on the DSAGC website.
This is a reprint from Paul Daugherty’s blog. His daughter, Jillian, wrote a guest post about her work experience earlier this year.
Jillian Daugherty Mavriplis went back to work this morning. in the athletic department of Northern Kentucky University. After spending the summer working as a teacher’s assistant at our local YMCA’s summer camp, Jillian will resume the job loves best.
“NKU is my home,” she texted me this morning, while riding one of the four Metro buses she’ll take to get to and from work every day between now and May.
Frequent readers might know the story: Jillian and her husband Ryan each were students for four years at NKU, part of a pilot program that has won national acclaim. Jillian was a manager for three years of the men’s basketball team there. After she walked the graduation line, the athletic department kept her on. She does multiple jobs, everything from fetching coffee for the athletic director to giving tours to prospective Norse athletes.
Jillian survived a coaching change a few years ago.The coach who hired her six years ago, the saintly Dave Bezold, was let go, along with his entire staff. NKU kept Jillian, for a few reasons:
Jillian’s perspective on living is one I could learn from: Know what matters, which is whom you love and who loves you… be grateful for the kindness of people. . . return that kindness. That’s pretty much it.
The job gives her the same stuff it gives the rest of us: Respect, dignity, purpose, independence. She and Ryan pay the rent on their apartment. They pay everything, in fact, but the utilities. We in-laws cover those.
I wish the public at large could see them every day, leaving for work, coming home, making dinner, walking the dog, watching TV. They’d see a couple with the same needs, and wants, joy and love, emotions and cares as them. Usually, perception is the hardest nut to crack. In some areas, we have done an OK job. More of our kids are fully included in regular-ed classrooms, more are accepted by their typical peers.
Some are working jobs that match their skill levels, not the public’s preconceptions. That describes Jillian and Ryan, thankfully. And they’re doing their best to pay it forward.
Jillian went back to work today. It was a great day.
The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce is hosting a new event as part of their Diverse By Design initiative. It begins at noon on Monday, Sept. 26.
Topics include:
Paul Daughtery, an award-winning sports journalist and author, is the keynote speaker. His book, “An Uncomplicated Life,” is about his daughter Jillian, who has Down syndrome. Jillian has been successfully employed in the community for years and wrote a guest post for our blog earlier this year.
Registration and details on the Chamber’s website.
Also, on Sept. 27, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in partnership with the National Disability Mentoring Coalition, is hosting a celebration to kick off National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM).
The celebration, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., highlights USDA’s new Disability Mentoring Model as a means to support increased employment and advancement of individuals with disabilities in the federal government and provides the framework for agencies and disability organizations to collaborate and share resources. Hear from top leaders about how the federal government is working to increase hiring, advancement, and retention of people with disabilities, and learn about a new multi-sector disability mentoring model.
#InclusionWorks: Mentoring to and through Employment is being held in Washington D.C., but can be watched live via the web. More information and registration details available online.
Having a summer job is a part of life for most teenagers, and it’s no different for the 21 students working through PersonnelPlus’ Summer Youth Employment Program.
The program, split up into two areas, career exploration for younger students, and on-the-job experience for older ones, lets high schoolers job shadow, learn interview skills, and build their resume, PersonnelPlus Transition Coordinator Jordan Pepper said.
Students are paid minimum wage — $8.10, which is funded by Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities and the Vocational Rehabilitation Public and Private Partnership, and work 20 hours each week during a portion of their program, lasting five weeks, Pepper said.
“We feel that this program helps students with disabilities gain valuable work experience that will lead to successful employment in Athens County later on,” said Doug Mitchell, PersonnelPlus Director. “Furthermore, because these students are paid, money is returned back into the local economy as many of these individuals buy goods and services, which have in the past, translated to buying school clothes and supplies.”
Read the rest of the story in The Athens Messenger.
Employment Spotlight 