Complimentary Dishes
(related pages, various sections)

Employment Menu

Job Development

Job Coaching

Creating a Culture that Emphasizes Employment

Other personal accounts...

 Jay's

Tim's

BrendaLee's

Employment Services

When I first came to the Village, I thought about how different it was from where I came from in terms of the boundaries at the other places where I have worked. It seems so logical that it would help to take someone to a job, or help them out at a job. At the Village, I know that whatever I think is necessary to do to help a member become more successful while working, I can and should do. My own opinions and point of view are respected, so I don’t have to hold them back. I think that this is the kind of environment that can have a lot of potential.

When a job developer comes to me, the first thing I do is find out about the job and meet the person. Sometimes a member comes to me and talks to me before she starts a job. Then I get a sense of what they will need when they get a job. I assess what a person needs by talking to their work site supervisor about their work skills. If they are village members, I talk to their PSC about what might be the most difficult thing for them to do to get a job. These difficulties might have to do more with their fear or their ways of coping with stress. There are a lot of details for each individual that are difficult. For example: dealing with a schedule change, hygiene, figuring out when to take their medications, transportation, or just the idea of working out in the community.

I am very up front and honest. If you are going to be working then you need to be smelling better, you need to shave. Sometimes this can mean showing someone what kind of deodorant to wear. For example, the other night I went up to someone and said, "you have some bad BO." He said that I did, and we went from there.

The first thing I do is develop a relationship with a member. I want to know what their specific concerns are about working. Each person has a different aspect that they need help with

I work with one member who is stubborn and unable to deal with different cultures. We will never change the way he thinks, but we try to explain to him that it does not matter what you think about this person but this is your job, and this is the way that you must treat your boss.

Unless you develop a relationship with each person, then you will never be able to know what kind of support he/she needs.