The job hunt for clients continues

Lately I have been working on finding employment opportunities for clients during the month of June. We have found some businesses in the Bibb County region of Alabama who are hiring at the moment and most likely could help our agency of the Ability Alliance of West Alabama. Our goal is to hire at least 8 clients before the end of the year. It is challenging to do yet not as hard as you might think if you are indeed very creative and continuously pushing for opportunity. It also very much helps to have another Americorps VISTA member assisting myself in the endeavor.

Edufire for Live Video Learning

What is Edufire? Edufire is an online video education tool for people whom are knowledgeable on a wide variety of topics such as: website development, computer programming, marketing, entrepreneurship, Search Engine Optimization, health, and also career development. This tool is great for vocational rehabilitation counselors, case managers, volunteers, and even schools to utilize to their advantage.
The fact that people can learn job skills and be able to be tutored by teachers all over the World makes it better for everyone. Everyone benefits from learning and getting educated even if it is online education. Especially because online video classes on Edufire are cheap and practical based on experience level for those wanting to learn skills in many different areas of education.
Below is a video detailing what Edufire does and can do for you as far as online education and tutoring goes. Online classes and online advice on numerous subjects are at your fingertips using Edufire.com. Please for reference on Edufire watch the video I have placed here below.

Easter Seals Employment Conference Calls

The National Self Advocates Becoming Empowered Organization partners with Easter Seals Nationwide in a new grant with Developmental Disability Councils, the National Disability Rights Network, University Centers, and the ARC Nationwide. The grant is primarily about family support. Professionals dealing with employment will be informed on how people with disabilities will be needing their support. The purpose of these conference calls have been to bridge together self advocates and families. Each month on the third Wednesday of the month at 3p.m. Eastern Time conference calls will occur Nationwide.

Working with 3 main clients now for work

Of the four Americorps VISTA members that the Ability Alliance has now only two of the VISTA members are working on employment issues for people with intellectual disabilities. Currently we are working with three clients for employment and helping them to find and retain work. Work will be found where it can be found and or if it needs to be created it will be created. Employment can be created as an investment project of the communities that we are working with and in if none of the jobs that we find are suitable for our clients.
However in order to make sure employers can hire our clients then we need to meet with employers in the communities that we are representing. Also we need to make sure that they are accepting of the clients that we refer to them for work opportunity. If they do not accept our clients then we can not work with them as employers. As the Ability Alliance of West Alabama we would prefer that there is handicap accessible parking, good wage benefits to our clients, and the same treatment given to our clients as to other workers at a place employment. We will however make employers very informed about the whole process of employment and what kinds of benefits an employers receives, etc. Besides that our goal is to get these first three clients into employment of their choice.

Employment goal of 8 people

The Ability Alliance of West Alabama's goal is to employ 8 people in two counties before the end of 2010. In order to do this effectively we will be looking for work in four different counties which are: Tuscaloosa, Jefferson, Bibb, and Pickens Counties. This will be done because we have transportation to all of these counties and can get clients to any one of these counties by car. Our transportation system spans all of these counties and can get people to work in these counties.
First Americorps VISTA members are to meet with clients and do assessments on them in order to be able to understand what kind of work that they would like to do. Also to learn what interests them and what kinds of supports they might still be needing that they might not have. If they have the supports that they need then they are ok for that part of the assessment and the focus is solely on employment.
Considering that the goal is to employ 8 people by the end of 2010 then it would be reasonable to get between two to four people working during this Summer and 4 working in the Fall to Winter. Also keeping track of progress, files, and reports on clients is important as well. Another good way to keep track of work progress is through video interviews on if the clients are liking their jobs or not. A great example of this is People First of New Hampshire's "The World of Work"series.
http://www.peoplefirstofnh.org/WorldOfWorkOnlineTraining.htm

Job searching

It is of importance that after we do an assessment of a client who is ready for work then what we do is search for employment on their behalf. It is very similar to searching for jobs on your own and for Summer employment, etc. Yet this is for our clients the job search that is. Once the Americorps VISTA members find employment for the clients of the Ability Alliance of West Alabama then we count them towards our grant from the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services. Our total amount of jobs needed is 8 and if we can accomplish that much then we get refunded again next year. If there are services that our clients need in order to do their jobs then they shouldn't have to wait. A good video of this is seen below in the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxTESMHWepM

New Americorps VISTA members and supported employment case manager join the Stronger Together Project

At the end of April two new Americorps VISTA members joined the Stronger Together VISTA Project in Northport Alabama. One of the Americorps VISTA members just started on May 17th, 2010 and is from Centreville Bibb County. The VISTA member went to college at the University of Alabama at Birmingham for Community Health Education and graduated in 2009. The two new VISTA members will be helping me work on issues of employment and to get jobs for our clients. Until recently I have been alone working on employment. Now there are three members working on supported employment.
Also there is a new supported employment case manager that is working with us to guide us in developing employment opportunities. The new supported employment case manager just started working with us on May 17th.
The goal is to get as many clients as possible employments from our current list of clients that is about 25 people thus far. The strategies will range from using our standard grant money to get employment, public relations, marketing, and also local currency and or trading systems. By the end of the year we hope to get 25 new jobs for our clients if possible and if we only get from 15 to 20 jobs then it is ok as well.