[musical interlude]
Welcome to a presentation of Networks for Training and Development's
20th Employment Supports Symposium.
Funding for the Symposium has been provided by the City of Philadelphia
Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services.
We hope you enjoy the session.
Nikita: Good Morning everyone! Welcome to the 20th Employment Support Symposium
We are so glad to be here with you all today.
Without further ado, I'm gonna pass this off to Joe who will be facilitating today's session
by Tracy Lapreziosa called Transitioning to Employment -
Stories of Young People's Journeys to Employment. Take it away, Joe.
Good morning! My name's Joe Murphy with Networks for Training and Development.
Unfortunately, Tracy could not be with us today,
so we actually prerecorded most of today's session with Tracy,
and a couple of interviews with people she's worked with in the past.
With that in mind, we wanted to keep this as interactive as possible,
so there will be two spots during today's session where we're going to go into
breakout rooms to answer some questions, and have some small group discussion
about some of the things that were talked about during the interviews.
If you have any questions, we made sure as part of the Networks' team that we have
People here who have expertise in this topic that we can answer some of these questions.
And if we can't answer them, we can get the questions to Tracy,
and we will get you the answer to your question.
So we're still encouraging you guys please participate, please ask questions,
please raise your hands - and we'll unmute you at some appropriate times
after each interview. We have two interviews, and a small little recording at the end.
They're each about 25 minutes, but after each one we'll go into the breakout rooms,
and have some small group discussion.
Without that, I get to introduce Tracy,
Tracy Lapreziosa is a graduate of Elizabethtown College,
with a B.S. in Occupational Therapy, and Kutztown University,
with an M.A. in Counseling Psych. She also has a specialty certificate
in School-based Therapy from NCP-Hanneman Univerisity.
Tracy has over 30 years of expertise working with children,
adolescents, and adults with developmental and / or physical disabilities,
as well as spectrum disorders, in a variety of settings
including schools, homes, and work environments.
Tracy has studied sensory integration practices in Sensory Integration International,
and completes accessibility evaluations which include the effects of the environmental
sensory inputs on one's ability to function efficiently in their environments.
She has additional training in Myofascial Release, Stress Management,
Progressive Relaxation, and Reiki. In addition to her work at Networks she has served as an
adjunct faculty member at Penn State University - Berks campus,
and continues to provide direct service to early intervention, school-aged,
and adult clients. So, without further ado, Tracy Lapreziosa's session...
Tracy Lapreziosa: Welcome to today's presentation:
Transitioning to Employment. I'm Tracy Lapreziosa and I'm an
Occupational Therapist that works with Networks for Training
and Development. And I'll be guiding you through today's
presentation regarding transition and several
frameworks that I have found useful along the way for helping
folks become more independent in their daily lives. First off,
I'm going to share with you some of my personal journey regarding
helping folks achieve independence in their lives and
how I came from the beginning of my career to where I am right
now and working within these frameworks. And that, and we're
going to have a conversation with a gentleman whose
organization provides support and training for students in
high schools who are transitioning to employment. And
then lastly, we're going to hear from two young gentlemen, hear
their stories regarding their transition into employment after
going through job exploration.
I transitioned into my job as an occupational therapist in the
early 80s. And I worked in a rehab setting. And in the rehab
setting, I was challenged to look at each person, look at how
their lives had changed from some type of disability or
injury, and look at what it was that they wanted to be able to
do in their life, and how it could help them to achieve more
independence. So as a therapist, I would talk to them about their
goals, what they wanted to do. And I would really need to look
at them as a person: who were they? What were their
challenges? What were their strengths? What were their what,
who was their support system? What was their home environment?
What was their work environment? Did they want to go back to
work? Did they want to be independent at home? Or did they
want to be taken care of? I had to look at the motivation level
as well. So as a rehab therapist, I always looked at
the person, I looked at their environment, I looked at what
they needed to do and how I could help them to get there.
And it might have been adaptive equipment, accommodations, and
definitely some skill training.
Then in the late 80s, I transitioned into working into
educational setting in kindergarten through 12th grade,
or K to K to 21, basically, age wise. And in that setting, I
found that I was doing pretty much the same thing. I was
looking at the student and looking at who they were, and
looking at their environment, which in in an educational
setting, of course, is the classroom. And I was looking at
what tasks or challenges did they have within that classroom,
and how could I help them be able to be more independent and
more efficient in what they needed to be able to do. So of
course, in education, it was might have been things that were
a little bit more simple. If I was looking at a student who
wasn't able to write clearly or wasn't able to keep up. So I
would go into the classroom and look at, you know, their desk
and how they were sitting, how close they were to the board,
what kind of pencil they were using. And I would come up with
some strategies, and it was usually getting them a new desk
and a new chair. So their feet would touch the floor, and they
would have a more stable base, maybe changing the angle of
where they were writing and giving them some type of
adaptive writing grip. But things got a little bit more
complex as more and more students with more complex needs
started coming back into the public school system. And we had
to look more at assistive technology. In the 90s,
computers started to become a bigger part of what was going on
in education. And students with more complex needs were coming
back and they needed to be able to communicate. So we started to
look at more assistive technology, more higher tech
technology. And when that came about the intermediate unit that
I was working with, which is Montgomery County Intermediate
Unit, started training folks, therapists, teachers regarding
what was called the SETT Process. Now the SETT Process
stands for Student, Environment, Tasks, and Tools. And right now
there's a graphic on the screen that has an outline. And inside
that outline is the word "environment", looking at the
whole picture inside this box, and then inside that box is a
squiggly circle that's divided into three parts. And then each
of those parts is "student" is in one part, "task" is in
another and "tools" is in the third. So as part of this SETT
process, we were challenged as a team to really look at the
student. What were their talents, what were their
interests, what were their past experiences, what was their
motivation, social circles, support from home, supports at
school, what what things revolved around that student,
what did they bring to the table?
And we looked at the environment. Which, of course,
again, and the setting was the educational setting, could have
been the classroom. Sometimes it might have been outside the
playground, or it could have been in the gym, or the art
room, it was different types of environments we may have to look
at. And we were challenged to look at the task that they were
being challenged with, what was that task? And in many cases, it
was either communication or written communication. And then
we would look at tools. And the first step would be to look at
what tools are the student using right now? What are they using
now? And then we would look at: is it working? Is it not
working. And if it was working, we let it go. And if it wasn't
working, we were challenged to problem solve, and try to come
up with other things that might be a benefit. And we would
always start with lower tech options. So if it was writing,
we would start out with maybe using a scribe maybe using some
type of dictation to get the information out. If it was
communication, we would start out with more are they able to
use pictures, can they use choices a choice board, and then
from there, we would look at, if that didn't seem to be working
quite so well, we might go to something more higher tech, like
an augmentative communication device. And we would have to
look at the student what their abilities were to be able to use
that device and what the features were on the device and
try and match them. And that was all part of the SETT process.
And then we would do trial and error. So again, I looked down
like this is basically what I've been doing all along looking at
the person looking at what they needed to do, and looking at how
we needed to come about helping them to be more independent.
Then I transitioned from my work in the schools, to my work at
Networks, and I started studying and helping to teach the ACRE
course, Job Accommodations on the Job. As part of that, I came
across the HAAT framework, which is Human Activity Assistive
Tech. So on the screen now is a graphic, which has an outline,
like a rectangular outline as box and in there, it says
context. Inside that box is the squiggly circle divided into
three parts. And inside each part, says "human", "activity",
and "AT" which is also includes the accommodations. So I looked
at this, as you know, we're looking at the human, which is
the person and we're looking again at talents, interests,
experience, background, frustrations, motivation, all
the things that revolve around that person revolve around the
human. And we looked at the context, where is that person
working? What's the job environment like? The when, the
where, you know, what's the time of day that they're working?
What does the environment look like? What's the temperature?
What's the lighting? What's the workspace look like? Is it
accessible? All those things are part of the context. And then of
course, we have to look at the activity, which is in this case,
the job task, what is the job task? What are they charged to
do what they need to get done as part of their employment? And
then we would look at what accommodations or assistive
technology are needed to be able to help that person work
efficiently and independently in the work environment. And the
accommodations or assistive technology could be applied
directly to the job task, we might modify the job task, we
might add some type of technology to help the person
access the job task, we might look at the person themselves
and look at, maybe we need to change their positioning, maybe
they need to stand up to do this job. Maybe they need to sit
down. We look at the environment. Maybe we need to
modify the environment. Maybe they need better lighting. Maybe
they need to be away from that noisy corner away from the
copier, so that they can focus. Maybe they need a cubicle. So we
looked at the person, the activity and the AT
accommodations. And then I thought back to my work in the
high school and when I was helping students in their
transition to employment program. And I was using I kind
of used the SETT Framework from the assistive technology team to
help my students at work. Because I would look at who they
were, what their job task was, what environment they were in
and what we needed to do to accomplish it. And I'm looking
at at these two models, I'm like, these are exactly the same
model.
They're exactly the same. So on the screen now is a graphic. And
inside there's a rectangular larger rectangular boundary in
there I have "environment" and "context", the words in between
different models, they're basically the same, they're
exactly the same. And inside this squiggly circle that's
divided into three parts. One part has "student" and "human"
in it with a little figure, again, looking at that person
that I looked at, in the beginning of my career, which
became a student, which became a worker, a human, but all in all,
it's the person. And then we have the other component, which
is the task for the activity. Again, in the education
environment, it was a school task in the job environment,
it's a, it's a work task. And then the third component is the
tools, the assistive technology or accommodations that are
needed to be able to be more independent. But when looking at
this model, this really doesn't apply just to employment, you
can use this model this framework, whether you call it
SETT, whether you call it the HAAT model, you can use this
framework no matter where you're working, whether you're
supporting someone in employment, or whether you're
supporting someone in the home, because this can also be used to
support people in the home, to come up with accommodations and
ways to make them more independent in their daily life
skills and in their leisure activities. Rich Weidner has an
organization that supports students in high schools to
transition into employment. So keeping those frameworks in mind
and listening to his interview, kind of see if you can see how
he looks at students, environments, job tasks, and
assistive technology.
Hi, I'd like to welcome Richard Weidner. He's the Program
Coordinator, High School to Work Transition Services, Inc., And
Rich, so far, we've been talking a little bit about models that
are used in school and after school for assistive technology
and coming up with accommodations for people as
they're transitioning to work. So I know that you have a lot of
experience with helping students transition. And so I'd like to
just kind of get an idea how what you're doing fits into the
models that we've been talking about. And one of the things
that we talked about is like fitting students interests and
talents and things into a job. So what are some things that you
do to kind of help fit students to potential job training sites?
Richard Weidner: Sure, well, you know, the employment related
transition really takes students out of the classroom and puts
them into a community work experience where they can build
some skills and get some experience to help them make
informed decisions. And some of that's just through trial and
error. You know, sometimes you learn what you'd like to do
based on what you don't like to do, realizing, you know, that
there's some limitations to those things. But typically, in
a school setting, we use the IEP team, and lean heavily on what a
student has already experienced, and what goals they may have for
their post high school activities, and then try to
match them up through interest surveys and things with programs
that come through the counseling center that might be like
Naviance, or Smart Futures, to identify again, where a
student's interests lie and ultimately, where their
strengths and needs lie.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So after you work through that process, and
you find out where they're going to go and what their interests
are, how do you decide which locations that you're that they
might be placed at? Do you have a set number? Are you you know,
are do students sometimes come up with them? How does that all
Richard Weidner: Yeah, I get I think it's kind of adapting to
work?
what each student would like to try to accomplish. And
initially, we focus a lot on transferable soft skills. So the
actual placement in terms of where they learn the skills is
less important than getting the experience and going through the
process of learning on the job. So while a student might say I'm
interested in working in an office, if, if it's not feasible
to find an office position right away, sometimes we'll move them
into food service. And we work on those transferable skills,
the things like: following directions, good attendance,
good punctuality, maintaining a positive attitude, things we all
do in our jobs and often take for granted but things that
would apply to just about any position that you have in
employment down the road.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So they're developing all those soft skills
and they're doing some trial and error what they like what they
don't like, and I you know, I'm guessing that the students that
you are working with have a whole variety of disabilities,
talents and how, what supports are provided for them as they're
going out to try these different jobs. Are their supports on the
job and outside of the job? What are some things that that
happen? Richard Weidner: I think the biggest area of support comes in
the form of job coaching. And when the student first
acclimates to a new worksite um, there's a coach that's available
to help serve as a liaison, maybe between the manager and
the student to help ensure that there's good communication and
understanding of what those expectations are. Some of it is
task specific. So in an office job, you might be, you know,
honing a skill of filing by alpha or numerical information.
And a job coach can help identi y what tricks might be needed
o accommodate that student. f it's, you know, printing out
a little cheat sheet or n alphabet strip to help, tho
e things really become sort of t e focus of the job coach's role
o help the student build t e skills and ultimately mo
e towards independence, and aw y from a reliance on somebody el
e to necessarily do the job r learn the job, but movi
g towards independence and havi g that student be as successful
s possibl
Tracy Lapreziosa: Now, there are some students I that may require
a little bit more as far as assistive technology
accommodations. Do you have any examples of some that may be
required a bit more than that?
Richard Weidner: Sure. I mean, that could include things like
software that might use speech software instead of the student
who is unable to type. Another big one is just with the advent
of smartphones becoming part of a student's daily life,
utilizing the positive side of it. You know, often in a work
setting, using a phone is not permitted. But there's ways that
you can tap into some apps to allow students to organize their
time, help them keep track of calendar events and items that
they might otherwise lose track of. And I think the biggest one
there is in communication, right? Where students would have
to communicate with a manager. And then oftentimes, how
allowing the student to text and stay in touch with a manager
outside of work hours is often beneficial as well.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Oh, that's that sounds great. Um, yeah,
smartphones are, are very useful in a number of different ways.
As the students like, progress through the program, are there
ways that you work on fading supports or adaptations or are
there other people, other team members that become involved to
help determine what might be needed to to help them along the
way? I mean, I'm thinking back to my experiences working in
high school, and sitting down in those SETT meetings and going
through trying to figure out assistive technology or working
with students who might have been out on a job and there was
one or two little things they couldn't do and come back and do
some specific skill teaching, in order to help them move forward.
Richard Weidner: Sure, I think the reliance on the job coach,
again, working with the worksite supervisor and the manager to
identify where those needs are, and then identifying ways that
they can troubleshoot them. And in some of those instances, it's
if it's a PT, or OT, consult that can happen within the IEP
team to work through some fine motor skills, or gross motor
skills that a student might just need some extra practice with,
and looking for ways to partner with those work sites, maybe to
allow them to bring some items home to practice working on,
things like that. I think it's, again, with the focus of
independence as the ultimate outcome, we look for ways for
the student to build confidence through their experience, so
that they can not rely on another person to have them
complete those tasks and be successful in that job.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Um, besides the more physical
accommodations, what accommodations are made for
those students who may not have the tolerance for going out and
working six hours or you know, or they have there's mental
health concerns? What are some accommodations that you might
use for those students?
Richard Weidner: I think in those cases, actually, in most
cases, we tend to start slow and build stamina over time. We're
limited within the hours of the school day to how many hours a
student might even be available to work. So oftentimes, if a
student is only available to participate one or two hours a
day, that becomes the starting point, the building block then
to try to work on some stamina, building some stamina and being
used to working in a part time job, the expectation is
generally a four hour shift. So starting slow, I think and
building up to a point where you can extend the day to a
reasonable amount of time. And if that requires in a job
setting, to talk to the manager and ask for some accommodations
with scheduling, rather than doing it at four hour chunks,
maybe it's possible to do two hour chunks over two days rather
than one shift on one day.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So you're slowly building up their
tolerance over the time period that they're participating in
the program?
Richard Weidner: Yeah, absolutely. And endurance, I
think is a big thing, when you're talking about students
getting used to, they might be used to doing things for a
longer period of time in school, but those are often broken up
and spaced out. So in a work setting, generally, because your
expectation is that you're at one spot, working on one task
for an extended period of time getting a student used to that,
and again, having the employer understand that that's part of
the process of building up that tolerance towards the
independence and longevity.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So by the time they hit that final year,
whether it be they're ending their school career at 18, or
they're ending their school career at 21. What's the goal
for that last year? Are they working most of their school
day? Or how, are there many of them still doing partial days?
Richard Weidner: I think it depends on the student, we have
some students who still have some academic requirements that
they're trying to fulfill in order to exit that year. And in
those cases, we don't have as much time during the day. But we
also have the benefit of having students return for post 12
years. And in those cases, generally from 18 to 21. If a
student stays, we have longer to try to work on those staminas,
work on endurance, work on the skills that again, not
necessarily specific to a career that they're choosing. If
there's a possibility of them working in one job, building
some skills, and then transferring it to another job,
that's often what we rely on. But we also try to match those
longer term career goals. So in those post 12 years, we have the
ability to focus in and try to narrow that focus on some of
those careers. And, again, independence, self advocacy,
having a student learn what their limitations are, and how
to communicate those things to a manager is is an important part
of what happens as students prepare to exit.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Now as as students are graduating, do some
of them actually get jobs with, with organizations that they
interned with? Or do you, or is there some assistance with
interviewing and job searching when they get to the end of
their school career?
Richard Weidner: Yeah, oftentimes, we find ourselves
kind of working in tandem with some of the adult service
providers. And in that final year, there's some overlap in
that handoff where, you know, we can explain what we've done with
a student and the accomplishments that that
student has made over the course of their time in the work
program, and then allowing them to realize if if job coaching is
a need as they exit school and are now in an adult system that
job coaching at that point should be something that can
just be an intermediate step to get them over the hump towards
being successful independently.
Tracy Lapreziosa: And have you had students who've graduated
and have gone off to jobs without the job coach?
Richard Weidner: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's the
best case scenario is when students can hit the ground
running, and just continue with a program where they've put the
time in, put their hard work in, have the confidence to be able
to communicate well and rely on the skills that they've
developed in that toolbox. And then they just really take that
toolbox with them wherever they go.
Tracy Lapreziosa: That's great. We're going to be interviewing a
few of the students who went through your program coming up,
and both of them had obtained employment post high school so
it is really exciting to hear, you know, that they're, you
know, there's so many steps to getting them ready and by their
senior year, they're ready to get into that job interview and
go out there and, and see what they can do and it sounds like
from that there is a pretty high success rate with students
getting employment after high school.
Richard Weidner: Yeah, I think having the opportunity is the
biggest thing. You know, some students have a number of
limitations such as transportation and figuring out
how to help families navigate through some of those things,
again, with some of the adult service providers who may be
able to make connections and provide support, become heavily
relied upon, I think for their students to in order to take
that next step and be successful, whether it's in
employment that's paid either part time or full time. And some
students are very content, and families are content to have
their students volunteer. They may not be looking for six or
eight hours of employment per day. So breaking that up and
again, chunking those things out based on the student's needs
might be an outcome that's desirable for students outside
of paid employment.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Okay. Great, you really painted a clear
picture of, you know, the whole process from the beginning that
trial and error and matching students and then, you know,
developing all those skills providing the adaptations, which
really kind of falls into our model of looking at who that
person is, what environment are they working in, what do they
have to do and what tasks or assistive technologies needed to
complete the job. Um, so that's happening at the school level,
and it continues on as a transition to adult services. So
we thank you very much for being here today and sharing a little
bit about your program. And we look forward to hearing from the
students in the in the next section here
Richard Weidner: Thank you.
Michelle? Hey everybody, it's Michelle Sparling from Networks.
We thought that we would have just a little bit of back and forth in the chat box -
What are your thoughts on what you heard from Rich?
So what are your thoughts on what you heard?
[Michelle reads from the chat box] Wendy says, "Very motivating!"
Is this something that some of you are already donig?
Nancy Jo says she agrees with the job coach.
Chris says, "Interesting that they mention volunteering as an option."
Michelle: Hm mmm. Especially for transition - it's good experience.
Vanessa says, "Yes, I'm doing a lot of what he discussed." Michelle says, "That's great."
Cathy says, "I like the development of the soft skills building -
their iPhone to communicate with a manager. Real good tools to develop paths to success!"
Michelle: That's great - yeah, the iPhone has taken on a whole life to support everyone -
not just people with disabilities - it's everyone. It's technology in our pocket.
Joe: We're gonna move on with the next set of interviews Tracy did with 2 of her students. Joe:
Richard Weidner: Thank you.
Tracy Lapreziosa: As you listen to these interviews, think back
to the models and see where you can see if you can determine if
their experience took into consideration who they were,
what what their job tasks were and what accommodations they
needed. Next up, we have an interview with Dane Soda. Hi,
Dane, how are you today?
Dane Soda: Good, how are you?
Tracy Lapreziosa: I'm great. We're going to be talking with
Dave today about his experience with job exploration and his
current status with employment and that journey that he's had
to get there. So today let's start out with first you know,
tell us a little bit about yourself.
Dane Soda: So I'm a triplet, I have a brother and sister. I'm
also a huge sports fan. I like the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers
and Flyers. And [my] brother and sister are in college. My
brother's in college and in class right now and my sister's
at Wilkes University so she's in college so I've been the only me
and by myself [at] home, so.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Okay, so you're at home and they're off
at school, but you're you're working and so we're going to
talk a little bit about the job exploration program and that
started for you in high school. Can you tell us a little bit
about what your day was like at school before you started the
job exploration program?
Dane Soda: So an old day looked like was I had classes like all
day. I didn't start like work until December of 2016 - that
was in my sophomore year. So I wanted to be a server so they,
Mr. Weidner, Mrs. Emerson, my parents, myself, started started
at a Chick-fil-A in Royersford. First time there. I went back
there my senior year for a second stint. So
Tracy Lapreziosa: Okay, so you started in 2006 now how did you
find out about the work program and what got you interested in
it?
Dane Soda: Um yeah, my parents were interested in working so
we're going to the man, Mr. Weidner was the guy that I'll be
working with. So he's my one boss. So just started to start
on December 6 2016. That was my sophomore year and I started my
work for him. So
Tracy Lapreziosa: So as part of that work experience, you had
multiple places where you went right and i know you wanted to
be a server. So you went to Chick-fil-A, but I think there
were some other places where you went as well right?
Dane Soda: Yes, um Spring-Ford Diner, Keller Williams, which is
an office setting, Spring-Ford 5/6 Center, the Spring Valley
YMCA. I also this past year worked at GlaxoSmithKline as a
Project SEARCH Intern student. We had like two rotations, used
to do three but we had to do two because of the pandemic. My
first rotation I did - Global Clinical Studies and Research &
Development Tech, which is an office setting. And then what I
did was I did data and research development tech I did data
visualization on Spotfire, data entry, data inventory over
there. And that's where we also had a couple work Christmas and
Halloween parties that we did that. I did a I got to be a part
of the penal point game so I was like the host for that one.
Then my second rotation was um meeting specialists and the
fitness center means the meeting specialists is when I walk
around the whole campus I've got all of building 4 for which is
an old building, walk around there, fourth floor to the first
floor check out the meeting rooms requirements see if
they're they're nice and clean and tidy. See if the chairs are
pushed in. And then in the fitness center, what I did over
there was I stocked towels, cleaned the equipment, put the
towels in the womens and mens locker room. That's all I what
I did in the fitness center.
Then this right now I'm working at North Italia at King of
Prussia so I’m doing what I'm doing is, I'm a busser. Over
there it's a part time job. They work like five hours so I'm
clocked out at four o'clock pm when I'm done. What I do there
is I am a busser. I clear and clean tables. I fill the ice and
soda for the customers, for the bar and the soda machines. Then
I roll the silverware, polish silverware. I clean the
bathrooms as well, womens and mens.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So you've you've just given us a quick
history of like everything you've done. Part of it through
Mr. Weidner's program at a high school with through the STEP
program. And that Project SEARCH was another program that you did
your senior year. And now you're in your your regular employment
right now. But let's just step back a little bit to when you
were in Mr. Weidner's program and you had all those different
rotations. Now was that to kind of see what you liked and what
you didn't like?
Dane Soda: Um, what I didn't like was the Keller-Williams,
the office setting cuz it wasn't like a good fit. And then um
Chick-fil-A, I worked it in my second stint. I worked in the
afternoons actually. And it was good to be there. So I went to
Spring Valley YMCA and the Spring-Ford 5/6 Center. There
was a possibility to work at the Spring-Ford Diner again. But
Mr. Weidner said "No, try something new.” So
Tracy Lapreziosa: But it sounds like your one of your favorite
things to work was was as a server you liked the
Chick-fil-A. And then from there, you went to your Project
SEARCH (Dane: "Spring-Ford Diner") and Spring-Ford Diner,
right. (Dane: "Yes.") And then and then from there you went
through the Project SEARCH which was at GSK. (Dane: "Yes.") And
you sounded like you did a number of rotations there as
well to help you kind of explore what you liked and what you
didn't like and what part of those rotations did you like the
best?
Dane Soda: So I liked the meeting specialist and fitness
center, cuz it’s alot of like walking and moving. I know I
walk and so did a part of that. While I'm walking and moving on
different floors and all of that. So it was just building
four. Um, we had nurse Gita, that did the whole campus. So I
just did building four.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So you like that you were up and moving
around a lot?
Dane Soda: Yes.
Tracy Lapreziosa: And yeah, I know you're very social. So
anything that has you like, out there being able to chat with
people is a good thing, right?
Dane Soda: Yes.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Um, but then after you finished Project
SEARCH, you started your own job journey, you know, your own job
search right. And you had a number of interviews. You, it
wasn't just one. You had a number of interviews. You want
to tell us a little bit about the the interviews that you had
and why you chose the one that you chose?
Dane Soda: My interview was my first interview was at Olive
Garden as a Host. Um, I don't think that worked out well and
then um yes I applied at Ursinus College as a dining room
attendant. It was between Ursinus and a Nordstrom but
North Italia came up and said um Italia came up and said how good
it's I went to orientation day and then I interviewed over
there. And then I went orientation day then they just
wanted to hire me um North Italia's very nice people so I
got hired over there. It was between Ursinus and Nordstrom
but North Italia came up and I got the job over there so that's
why I did.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Awesome, congratulations. Now can you
tell us a little bit about your hours - like how much do you
work? How did you choose those hours? How did that, how did
that come about for you?
Dane Soda: So I've been working daytime hours um but when I get
used to it I might work like Saturday hours, that's a
possibility. Saturday hours well because there's nothing on
actually. Baseball comes around and now so anyways I might work
Saturday hours as a possibility. I've been working
like weekdays on a Tuesday through Friday like five hours
so 11am to 4pm was a good for me because I get [to] like sleep in
a little, so.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So it fits your schedule just perfectly.
Dane Soda: Yes, but the Ursinus job you have to get up like
around and be there at like 7 in the morning and may be done at
11am.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Yeah, so this North Italia was a better fit
for your for your schedule for your sleeping preferences.
Right?
Dane Soda: Yeah.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Would have been for mine too. What are some
of the things about North Italia that you really like?
Dane Soda: Um, so many people, very nice people. Get to talking
a little bit, you know. Oh and now is my sixth week going in
this week. I really like it so far. I'm getting used to the
days there. So this is my sixth week going to it this week.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Great. And then I also just one other
question for you, Dane. What would your dream job look like?
What are you? What do you you know? What are your dreams for
the future? What other jobs might you want to try?
Dane Soda: So I might do a flight attendant because me and
my family all love to travel. We go to like um Florida, Disney
World. We have a timeshare down there. So we didn't go this year
because of what's going on right now with the pandemic. So, we
were supposed to go on two vacations this year: the cruise
of Bayonne and then um, Florida but we cancelled that. So we're
going to do that next year. So,
Tracy Lapreziosa: Okay, so flight attendant, and then just
looking back at the jobs that you've had and what you want to
do. Did you need any type of accommodations as you were going
through those jobs? Was there anything that was a little bit
difficult and your job coach or Mr. Weidner helped you to kind
of problem solve and come up with a different way of doing
things?
Dane Soda: So Mrs. Musselman was my job coach at the Spring-Ford
diner, um, she kind of like helped me through it. I got Mr.
Fisher and Mrs DeMittis, Mrs Barthe, they kind of like helped
me through this.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So you've had a job coach throughout your job
exploration and you had, did you have a job coach through Project
SEARCH as well?
Dane Soda: We had two actually that he checked on our other 9
students, so we had 9 students. So we have like three, one's
like a teacher and two are job coaches. So two had to go check
on people, see how they're doing and all that, so
Tracy Lapreziosa: Okay. And then in your current employment now,
um, which I see one I mean one accommodation that you kind of
made for yourself is picking a job that has the hours that you
like, and that helps you to have the best energy to work but are,
do you have any accommodations at the job you're at now at
North Italia? Do you have a job coach? Do you have any, anything
that's going to change how you do it?
Dane Soda: I don't have a job coach. I just work on my own
most of the time and so.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Okay. Is there anything that come comes up
that's challenging for you? And would you know, at the job and
if it does, what do you do?
Dane Soda: So last week, I was getting the box and as my time
knows, last week I broke a wine glass, wine glass so so I had to
clean this all up so I told like, the manager. So cleaned,
cleaned, the wine glass up, just one though. So nothing like too
serious, but I didn't even cut myself so I just cleaned it up,
and someone helped me. And food service talked to me, so that
was it. that was Like last week?
Tracy Lapreziosa: Yeah, we've I think we've all broken a glass
or two, whether it's at home or at a job. So yeah, it's kind of
a rite of passage, I guess. Especially in the restaurant
business.
Dane Soda: Yeah, we use plates, glass, wine glasses or got
plates are glass so need to be very careful with that so.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So do you adjust the amount that you carry
in order to...?
Dane Soda: I basically am cleaing tables and cleaning them
and sweeping the floor. So basically I’m doing that.
Sometimes get the ice in the back. That’s been it, you know.
That’s what I'm doing at North Italia. And the bus top from the
bar to the back where dishwa- your dishwasher washes them. So
Tracy Lapreziosa: So you've had just some minor accommodations
along the way, mostly with a job coach and people just helping
you out and as you went and kind of with your scheduling as well
to make it at a time when it works best for you. And now your
dream job of being a flight attendant. And I think there was
another aspiration you had to that you thought you might like
to do.
Dane Soda: Sports broadcaster was one because you know I like
the Eagles, and they lost yesterday, but the Phillies lost
just as well. So the Phillies lost yesterday with the bad news
so that the Cowboys won the last second. So nothing bad. So.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So you're always up on sports. And I
always I read your posts and all your updates on all the sports.
So that's great. So I think you have some, some good ideas there
for the future. It sounds like a flight attendant might be a good
match too because you enjoy travel. And you, I don't know if
you can pick your hours for that or not. But But anyway, I
appreciate your spending time talking with us today and giving
us a little bit of an insight into your journey through the
job exploration in high school, your senior year and your your
transition into employment and your dreams for the future. And
thank you so much Dane for joining us today.
Dane Soda: Yeah.
Tracy Lapreziosa: And good luck to you in the future.
Dane Soda: Thank you.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Next up is Chandler Balch. And Chandler is
going to share his story about his experiences with job
exploration and employment beyond high school. So welcome,
Chandler. If you could give us a little bit of a background about
who you are and what your hobbies and interests are. That
would be a great start.
Chandler Balch: Thank you for having me today. My name is
Chandler Andrew Balch. I am 24 years old, and I like to use the
iPad and watch a lot of movies.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Okay, you were part of a job exploration
program in high school. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Like, what was your school day like before you started the
program? And then how did it change as you moved into the job
exploration?
Chandler Balch: The job exploration program, if you
didn't know is called the STEP program or the transitional
planning program. My day before I started the program was as
follows: I would go to school, get off the bus. And then my one
on one instructional assistant would help me throughout my day
completing my schoolwork using a mixture of an iPad and a school
issued laptop.
Tracy Lapreziosa: And then when you transitioned to the work
program, how did that change?
Chandler Balch: Then after I transitioned to the work
program, I would go through my day. And then after lunch, I
would get on school issued transportation and go to the job
site that I was meant to go to that day.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Can you share with us what some of those job
experiences were as part of that program?
Chandler Balch: I had two job experiences. I, through the
Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, I was able to volunteer at
a nursing home, talking and interacting with the residents.
And through the Arc Alliance, I was able to write a blog for a
disability advocacy organization.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Can you tell us a little bit about what your
job responsibilities were at each of those at that... Let’s
start out with the nursing home. What were your job
responsibilities there? And did you need any accommodations?
Chandler Balch: The job responsibilities there was
talking to the residents and making sure they had
companionship. And the other job... And the accommodation for
that is I did have my one-on-one instructional assistant, who
would shadow me and make sure I was safely moving around. Okay.
Tracy Lapreziosa: And then your other job exploration was at the
Arc and you did mention a blog. Can you tell us a little bit
about the blog and and how you were able to go about writing
that, what technology you used? What was what was the goal of
the blog?
Chandler Balch: I was able to go on writing a blog by using at
first a tower computer, then a laptop and Dragon
NaturallySpeaking which is a text to speech software, where
if you dictate something it will if you dictate something it will
type it into a document which I was then able to send off to my
head teacher to be edited.
Tracy Lapreziosa: And after your teacher edited it, who was
responsible for posting it, were you able to post it or did it go
to your supervisor at the Arc?
Chandler Balch: It went to my supervisor at the Arc.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Okay. What other projects or
responsibilities did you have at the Arc?
Chandler Balch: I was also able to advocate on behalf of direct
support workers for minimum wage in places like Harrisburg and
Washington. I did that for four years. I had a I had a visuals
that I would bring along with me that would uh, would explain the
story I was talking about.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Now, did you actually travel to Harrisburg
and Washington or was it done virtually?
Chandler Balch: I did actually travel to Harrisburg and
Washington. How I got transported there was mainly a
family member but sometimes the school would provide transport,
mainly my grandparents would provide on that transport. So I
would be transported via... I would be transported via my
grandparents. And they would they would pick me up in my
handicap-accessible van and then I would do and then I would be
transported back to school.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So your job experiences through the high
school they gave you some experience with blogging and
self advocacy and advocating for others as well. Now when you
finished high school, what was the next step for you? What was
the next thing that you did to gain employment?
Chandler Balch: Well, when I finished, when I finished high
school, I was able to get get a job through a company called
Ken's crew and Home Depot. They're there, Ken’s crew’s
whole mission is to help you successfully succeed in the
job. One of the one of the most interesting days, and give me
give me a second I have a picture of it, was when I
actually got to hold a bird at when I came into work one day.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Very interesting. How did the bird
come to be in Home Depot? Did it come in with a customer?
Chandler Balch: He came in with a customer, yes.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Very cool. Now, I see that you're in your
computer and you have looks like you have your iPad in front of
you on the computer Like what? What were your job
responsibilities? It looks like you were traveling around the
store, what was your job responsibility?
Chandler Balch: I was traveling around the store doing helping
customers find what they need using using my iPad.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So you would look up the inventory to see if
it was there or where it was located. Is that what you're
doing?
Chandler Balch: Yes.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Okay. Very cool. Did you have any other job
responsibilities or other adaptations that you used,
besides the iPad on the job?
Chandler Balch: No. No, I did not.
Tracy Lapreziosa: I think that I mean, that's a great job. I know
whenever I go into Home Depot, it's always great to have
somebody who can like answer those questions for you when
you’re to trying to look for things. Was that a job that you
really enjoyed?
Chandler Balch: Yes, but unfortunately, COVID-19 and a
few other things, caused me to have to leave the job.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So what's next on horizon for you you have
anything in the works or aspirations for the future and
for future employment?
Chandler Balch: Give me one second. And I'll get back to
you. And then I will answer the question.
There we go. Sorry I had to get back to you. So I can see your
face when I'm talking to you. But my aspirations for future
employment is I'm writing a book with my cousin, Kathleen Brown.
And we are writing a book on how to how to interact with a person
in a wheelchair. This person in a this person teaching children
how to interact with a person in a wheelchair. So the message of
the whole book is basically we're all the same inside, no
matter how we get around. And how I got to that was a lot of
the times kids come up to me and they say, “what's wrong with
you?” Well, I wanted to answer that question in many different
forms, enough many different formats that they can
understand, including a multimedia presentation that I
would eventually travel around the schools and give.
Tracy Lapreziosa: So your future it looks like it's promoting
your book and by doing some public speaking?
Chandler Balch: Yes.
Tracy Lapreziosa: That sounds great. Are there any other
aspirations or things that you would like to do in the future
besides writing a children's book is that something like more
children's books or you have any other goals or aspirations for
the future.?
Chandler Balch: Um, I like to know pretty much running,
writing a children's book and running my own business, I’d
like to turn, I'd like to turn the public speaking into some,
something I can do fulltime.
Tracy Lapreziosa: Right. It's always great to become an
entrepreneur. So we’d like to thank you very much for sharing
your story today, of your your travels or journeys through the
job exploration program and into employment and into your current
pursuits with the book and public speaking. So thank you
again for joining us and sharing your story.
Chandler Balch: You're welcome. And always remember, it only
takes one person to change the world.
Tracy Lapreziosa: After we had our interview, Chandler sent me
a few photos that he wanted me to include today. And the one
photo is a picture of him and his wheelchair reaching up at
the time clock at Home Depot. And the other picture is a
picture of him with his cousin, who is writing the book with
him. So good luck to Chandler. Good luck to Dane and thank them
both, I thank them both for sharing their stories with us
today. I hope that you were able to see how each of these young
men and their employment transitions fit into the
frameworks that we talked about. And to just keep those
frameworks in mind whenever you're supporting someone,
whether it be on the job or whether it be at home. So thanks
again for joining us today for today's presentation
“Transitions to Employment” and have a great day.
So unfortunately, I don't think we're going to have enough time to go into breakout rooms,
but I figured we could probably have this conversation for the next couple of minutes
right here with everybody.
So the questions posed to you guys before you got the interviews started -
Did the experience of Dane and Chandler take in consideration who the students were -
what were their job tasks?
What accommodations were put in place for each student?
[reading chat] Jessica says people support support - soft AT.
Wendy shares this was a great session.
Cheryl shares "It only takes one person to change the world" - what a great quote!
[Joe nods head] I should point out he wanted to make that perfect,
we actually recorded that a couple of times. He recorded that a couple of times.
He did a couple takes of that - he really wanted to make sure that was the key.
Vanessa responds: You know, I would also - if I had the opportunity to speak with him -
encourage him as a budding author. You know, I wouldn't want that to go, um,
by the wayside. It won't, because it's something that he's working on.
But, that is another realm outside of - and within - becoming an entrepreneur.
You know, we don't want to just scoop that into just entrepreneurship, because that
could get kind of lost when you're talking who he is and how great he can become.
You know, you definitely want to boost him up in that area also, as a budding author.
You know, even though he's writing the book with his cousin, still -
it's from his first-person perspetive and experience.
You know, it's a work that's coming from him - his mindset.
so yeah, I would definitely hone in on that, and put that on his list as possibilities
desired interests, and areas of greatness in the future.
Joe: Thank you, Vanessa.
Nancy Jo shares, "I want a copy of the book when it's finished."
Kris Rhood says they took into account who the students were.
Justin shares, "Great level of independence and life-quality value for both people.
It was great to see the level of social interaction with each with others."
I really like how the school took into account that he wants to write.
It seems like that's a passion of his. I mean he's looking to writing a book now,
but things he was looking into in high school - they made sure they put in technology,
with Dragon Naturally Speaking to be able to write that blog.
And that's now allowing his to write a book with his cousin.
It's pretty cool, to transition from little stuff to a bigger piece, and going where they're at.
For me it struck me even when editing the video - this is Diane at Networks -
and I was like he really IS a public speaker - he is VERY MUCH a speaker!
Anybody - any last comments anybody? Beth?
What's it say Diane?
It sounded as if Chandler continues to have many supports from iPad,
one-on-one assistant on the job, managers, Dragon software,
to family and school in his journey to success.
I also liked for me how people honored Dane when he said, "I'm not a morning person."
He said, "I don't want to work it." You know?
I loved that he was able to say, "Not happening!"
Joe: It's so key for people to realize that. Some little stuff like that - it's awesome!
I want to thank you guys for joining us today.
Again - have a fabulous Thanksgiving, and we'll see you next week.
The Networks' team would like to thank you for attending this session.
We hope you've enjoyed it. [musical interlude]