In late August, we formally started a new chapter at Little Friends. Our adult programming facility in Downers Grove was moved to 27545 Diehl Road in Warrenville, and in doing so we now have two buildings adjacent to one another that will help us serve both children, adults, and their families challenged by autism and intellectual/developmental disabilities for years to come. After several months of renovation in the newly acquired property, we moved and began programming in the new space.
While our team’s imaginations have been stimulated with the opportunity created by the new space, one new initiative that has been formally started has been our plan to help younger adults whose needs are less significant have a place to go to work on the skills they may need to secure and maintain employment in the community.
We know from conversations with many that there is a need for support once transition services end in school. Our plan is to not only help these individuals with soft skill training, but also offer programming that we believe can create opportunities in professions that lead to higher wages and personal independence.
We are calling the program “Connecting Adults with Communities” and it is being led by Cassidy Kaput. Cassidy will be responsible for our work providing assessments and aligning interests with training opportunities. Supporting Cassidy’s efforts working with the outside communities will be Jeff Carroll. Jeff will work with businesses to determine opportunities where our training programs can be used to prepare neurodiverse individuals for community employment.
As we look to roll out our new program, we do have plans to include job coaching supports. We are also working with several firms investigating assistive technology that can complement some of the work we will be doing. There are some wonderful tools available, and we have the full intention of offering them when applicable.
Big picture, there are several excellent training programs across the United States that are available to support neurodiverse individuals whose needs are less significant. Our role and vision are to bring as many of these programs together with the goal of implementing them in a fashion that helps those, we serve to gain employment. Assuming we can help them find the right jobs, we will strive to help them become as independent as possible.
We are excited to start this next journey at Little Friends. We know it is needed and look forward to working with those in the community in the time to come!
