Guest guest Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Would anyone with experience in choosing a job coach for supported employment through DRS care to share. Specifically, about Naperville, Dupage County experience with Parent Alliance Employment Project, Spectrum, SEP, or Ray Graham. Did they find you work in the community or did you have to find it? Did they find job coaches for you or were you able to hire your own? Were they well trained in making appropriate accomodations in the work place? Thanks Thais Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 You've listed the 4 agencies that do job coaching in DuPage County, except it's SEA, not SEP. All of these agencies do " job development " , that is, they will look for a job for your kid. They have coaches who are trained in looking for jobs, in coaching your kid on interviews, and in co-operating with employers to help your kid learn the job and make any reasonable adaptations to be successful. However, to make DRS happy, and their jobs more sane, job coaches must set priorities. If they are spending too much time on finding jobs and not enough on keeping the currently-employed folks doing well, then there will be a lot more people in the caseload who need jobs! They are checking up, in the workplace, on each employed person at least weekly. The job coach also supports the person in the workplace as much as needed, within what DRS will pay for. (If you think your kid needs more job coaching time at the job, make your case to the DRS rep.) The coach also chats with you, telling you about the boss, the co-workers, the job, etc. This is really great, because some of our kids do not really chat about work! We found that the coaches we worked with were very good at listening and taking our suggestions, including on what kind of jobs would not be a good idea for Neal. You can't say no to everything, but we wished to avoid jobs that required a lot of social skills out of Neal. Most of what they do, you can do, which is look at online job listings. Ask the job coach if that's o.k. Ours were fine with it, but asked that if I'd emailed a resume, to email them a copy of the ad. That turned out to be very useful. Based on your son's past work and volunteer experiences, ask them what key words to search for, and what job search engines they suggest. Everyone from transition job co-ordinators to DRS to job coaches at agencies will urge you to think through your family, friends, and other contacts for possible leads. There's a reason. Most people with jobs did NOT get them through Monster.com and other online job listings. Most job openings are not even advertised. The boss says, " Does anyone around here know someone who... " Neal used SEA (Supported Employment Associates), from in June 2007 (just after transition) to March 2011 (when DRS closed his case). During that time he had 2 job coaches; the first one retired. Both had work experience in for-profit companies and a great understanding of people. Both truly loved Neal because he has lots of energy, wants to please, and doesn't complain. I was extremely pleased with his coaches. They were very professional, had a lot of common sense, and the good taste to appreciate my son. We met together and with the DRS rep on a regular basis--every few months. It's mostly to inform the DRS rep, for the record, of what's been done in seeking or keeping a job. Neal had a few different jobs, mostly in warehousing; he had some experience in high school and transition in warehouse-type jobs. He needed little in the way of accommodations, mostly in interviewing. His job coaches hung around for most of the first day on the job, made suggestions to the trainers about how Neal learned best, and that was most of the accommodations. One of his job coaches told me stories (leaving out details for the sake of privacy) of a few adaptations she'd helped others with. Accommodations also need buy-in from the employer and boss. ADA talks about reasonable accommodations, so ask a job coach what would be viewed as reasonable by ADA, and feasible by the average employer. -Gail ________________________________ From: Francis PALLUAU <fpalluau@...> IPADDUnite Cc: IPADDUnite Sent: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 6:31 PM Subject: Re: Fw: job coaches Would anyone with experience in choosing a job coach for supported employment through DRS care to share. Specifically, about Naperville, Dupage County experience with Parent Alliance Employment Project, Spectrum, SEP, or Ray Graham. Did they find you work in the community or did you have to find it? Did they find job coaches for you or were you able to hire your own? Were they well trained in making appropriate accomodations in the work place? Thanks Thais Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 9, 2011 Report Share Posted November 9, 2011 Thank you Gail, That was very thorough! Yes the Dupage DRS office told me that I could choose the agency so that is why I asked for input. He also indicated that it would be best if I found the job because funding for this program has been reduced so that individuals may not have more than 18 months and that includes the interest inventory and job search not the actual time on the job. So I am looking for an agency that is willing to work with me and his team. I would appreciate a job coach who is creative in making accommodations as well. Do some agencies let you choose the job coach? Thais Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 10, 2011 Report Share Posted November 10, 2011 If any of the agencies let you choose the coach, that's news to me. They are mostly trying to balance caseloads. The DRS remarks about trying to find the job is a reflection of Illinois' financial straights even more than the job market, and this is a major policy change, probably set by the legislature. Why have we not heard about this change before? This is major!!! What's amazing is the federal-state disconnect. The point of job coaching, funded through DRS, is to get folks off of SSI and into paid employment. Long range, this may be a topic for national advocacy groups to pursue. Should the feds be kicking in something to state DRS, considering that DRS is trying to help those with disabilities become employed and get off SSI? How similar are the job coaching times for various states? If the answers are " yes " and " not very similar " , then it's worth discussing at the federal level. Meanwhile, you might want to see what the agencies say to the possibility of you paying for services, beyond the DRS funding. I have no idea what they'd charge, but it'd be interesting to know. -Gail ________________________________ From: Francis PALLUAU <fpalluau@...> IPADDUnite Cc: IPADD <IPADDUnite > Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 9:20 AM Subject: Re: Fw: job coaches Thank you Gail, That was very thorough! Yes the Dupage DRS office told me that I could choose the agency so that is why I asked for input. He also indicated that it would be best if I found the job because funding for this program has been reduced so that individuals may not have more than 18 months and that includes the interest inventory and job search not the actual time on the job. So I am looking for an agency that is willing to work with me and his team. I would appreciate a job coach who is creative in making accommodations as well. Do some agencies let you choose the job coach? Thais Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 10, 2011 Report Share Posted November 10, 2011 I'll ask that question as I call around to the agencies and post what they say. What I meant about choosing a job coach, if you know someone who'd make a really good job coach would they hire them, just like with certain agencies for home-based we hire our PSWs Thais. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.