Junior at home, holds up the Employee of the Month plaque he received from his employer.
No matter where you are in your lifecycle, transitions are hard. Moving on from the high school years to being a working adult often takes a little help. Luckily for Junior, a member of the DES Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD), that help was available to him through the dedicated DES Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program team and its partners.
Knowing that her son, at age 21, would be graduating from high school soon, Rita took the reins to help Junior find suitable post-school employment. "Basically, I was leading the way," said Rita. "I was going to school seminars and investigating various day training facilities. Rita was then connected with Pamela.
Pamela Becerra, a DERS Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist, primed the engine for Junior's trajectory to success in the working world. Over the past year, not only has Junior been a dedicated employee at his Ahwatukee-neighborhood movie theater, his work ethic was recognized last October with an employee-of-the-month award! Here's how it happened.
Right out of high school, Junior was working at a retail store when the COVID-19 pandemic started. Everything shut down. Months later, it was time to start over.
"After [the pandemic] and when the time was right to restart, [Pamela] asked me, basically, if I can trust her," said Rita. It was then that Rita decided to "go with the pro" and began working with DeeDee Lepper, who Pamela thought was most suitable to help Rita's son.
DeeDee, a job developer with Educate Empower Succeed (EES), has decades of experience in job development for individuals with developmental disabilities. A job developer helps clients create a resume, a cover letter, and practice interview questions based on the client's ability to understand the questions.
"It's not a one-size-fits-all [approach]," said DeeDee. "The processes we go through are the same, but how we handle each client can be very different."
DeeDee spends a lot of time talking about professional behaviors versus inappropriate behaviors, how to handle conflict, appropriate dress, cell phone usage, and more. "These are things I feel that coming out of high school, a lot of them don't understand." According to DeeDee, "The transition from high school to the world of work is probably one of the most challenging that [the individual is] going to face."
Job developers also work with employers to "carve out" a position that meets the employer's needs with the job-seeker's abilities. In this case, Junior is an usher at a movie theater, but his overall job responsibilities are fitted to his particular capabilities.
Now that Junior is successfully employed, he no longer needs a job developer. However, he isn't left on his own. DDD Member Employment Services has connected him with a job support coach to assist him with potential training/work issues as well as any personal concerns that may interfere with his or her job performance.
If you are interested in working with DDD Member Employment Services and/or the Vocational Rehabilitation Program, please:
Rita provides a few tips to parents based on her experience. First, she empathizes with other parents. "Parents with special needs [kids], they're so lost, so intimidated by the whole system, by the rejection, by feeling defeated already [because of their child's disability].
Rita's tips:
"I had to take a step back and not be so in control," reflects Rita. "You really have to work with the DDD base, kind of allow them to lead a bit because this is their profession. This is what they do as a living and they know all of the providers and they know all of their clients. [VR and DDD Employment Services] have connections with people out in the world who would be interested in working with [individuals with] special needs."