35.8 F
Naperville
Friday, March 29, 2024

LEARNING PRACTICAL SKILLS FOR COMMUNITY EMPLOYMENT AT LITTLE FRIENDS

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Time continues to fly by evidenced by the new school year getting started in late August. There is a sense of excitement for the staff and children to return to Little Friends. I think it is fair to say that everyone is hopeful that the coming year will be closer to what our normal time in school used to be. Masks have been part of what is necessary for a long time. While for some an inconvenience, I’ll accept this as part of the solution to assure we can have our kids back onsite helping them grow and develop.

Related to development, while we begin what will be our first full year at our new facility, included in our curriculum is a new program to help middle school and high school students prepare for career placement. The program is called Practical Assessment Exploration System (PAES), and when implemented we will convert a classroom into a work development lab where students assess various jobs using real tools. The lab provides hands-on experiences to help an individual assess both their competitive work potential AND personal interest in the opportunity.

The training and testing are focused on five main areas and they include:

  • Computer Technology—Subjects as broad as Data Entry, Work Processing, Mailing Technology, E-Mail, Information Management, Power Point, and Digital Photos.
  • Construction/Industrial—Subjects such as shop management, Wrenches and Bolts, Screws and Nails, Shop Saws, Wood Projects, Metal Projects, Electrical Projects, and Parts Identification.
  • Processing/Production—Subjects such as Bolt Assembly, Pipe Assembly, Color Assembly, Form Design, Visual Perception, Thread Design, Analogue time, and Digital Time
  • Consumer/Service—Subjects such as Food Measurement, Food Preparation, Kitchen Appliances, Food Service, Food Weights, Cloth Measurement, Hand and Machine Sewing, Housekeeping/Custodial
  • Business/Marketing—Subjects such as Alphabetizing, Numerical Sorting, Collating, Cash Register, Making change, and Typing

The PAES lab will provide our students with work and life-skill training that enables them to explore opportunities for future community employment. This formalized training program helps a student both learn and gain personal confidence with a job before they ever come to a work opportunity and start in this specific area. Having confidence and knowing that you will like what you will do greatly improves the potential for success. It is the reason why we chose to invest in this new program!

We are excited to offer the use of the PAES lab to our students and are confident this will benefit those we serve. More exciting, we believe that we will create new hiring opportunities for employers in our community. Given today’s environment, this can be a “win” for everyone!

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Mike Briggs
Mike Briggshttp://littlefriendsinc.org
Mike Briggs is the President and CEO of Little Friends. Little Friends empowers clients with autism and other developmental disabilities to thrive in our community. Their groundbreaking programs and nationally-renowned staff provide lifelong opportunities for growth, so their clients can work, learn, play and experience the joy of life’s everyday moments.

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