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.

Americorps VISTA Appreciation Event for Alabama

Last Tuesday and Wednesday I participated in the annual Alabama Americorps VISTA Appreciation Event from Tuesday May 11th to Wednesday May 12th. The event was held in Birmingham Alabama and was at the United Way of Central Alabama's office. Guest speakers attended about social media and also about the meaning of Americorps VISTA members support at this time in our country. Every Americorps VISTA project throughout the state of Alabama was represented at this event. Each Americorps VISTA project got up and told everyone at the event about their project. There was also ample time to do networking at the event as well. There was a volunteering activity on Wednesday with Habitat for Humanity that unfortunately I did not go to.

Job coaching begins

I have begun my job coaching with one of our clients from Tuscaloosa Alabama on this past Monday May 17th. So far we have taken her around the building and gotten her acquainted with where she needs to go for doing the job tasks that she needs to do. We did that on the first day and then went through taking out garbage and doing her employee orientation as well. Also we did some sweeping the first two days that she worked. The third day which was today she picked up garbage outside of our building and swept up outside.
Also I have helped her with her job application and to fill it out properly which she has struggles with. Writing or reading does not come easy to her and I have taught her to read some more words. I expect that she will want to learn to read more as time goes on especially if is to get another job in her life. Our client that is working at our building still goes to the Tuscaloosa ARC but only for half a day for four days and one full day on Fridays. She likes the work that she is doing at our building thus far and I am glad that I am working with her to help her do a good job. It is my first time ever job coaching and it has been good so far. The Ability Alliance of West Alabama had hired her a week ago but now she is working 10 hours a week and four days a week.

Meeting with Ala-WIN counselor and Tuscaloosa ARC about job benefits for client

Earlier today I attended a meeting that is a part of the job process for those receiving supplemental security income, and or Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. The meeting was to inform the client that I am job coaching on how her benefits will be affected and or helped by working. The meeting was with a counselor from Ala-WIN(The Alabama Work Incentives Network). Ala-WIN helps supplemental security income recipients and social security disability insurance between the ages of 14 and 64 understand their work options so that they can make good choices about their money and their employment. The Alabama Work Incentives Network is administered by Independent Living Resources of greater Birmingham Incorporated and United Cerebral Palsy of greater Birmingham. Ala-WIN serves 38 Northern and central counties of Alabama while the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services 29 counties in the southern part of the state doing the same work incentives program.
These agencies exist to assist Social Security beneficiaries understand federal and state work incentives. Alsos staff are on site to assist beneficiares in knowing the impact of earned income on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and any other public benefits that they may receive.
A meeting regarding social security disability insurance and or income is very common when working with people with developmental disabilities. Especially when a client is working a limited amount of hours and or salary which goes up to 423,000 a year. Anything earned over $23,000 is exempt from Ala-WIN and or any disability income program. Shortly after our meeting about the client's benefits we will be starting her first work week on May 9th, 2010 with 12 hours of work a week to start.

Job coaching with client

After about a month and a half of working with a client for preparation of a job and for volunteering at the Tuscaloosa Association for Retarded Citizens I am now going to start job coaching on May 9th, 2010. The client is also learning to read as well and I am the one who is teaching her to read from her People First of Alabama hand book and also with an animal picture book that she brings in with her from her appartment to learn new words. I am patient with the client as I help her to pronounce and enunciate words by how the letters sound. It has been a success so far working with this client on the job preparation process and I have gotten to know of her interests and been able to see her skills at cleaning at bathrooms, vacuuming, and dusting desks at the Palk Enterprises and Supported Employment office in Tuscaloosa. She has done well and I have gotten along well with her as well as we have worked from sample job duties hand books over the last month and a half to get her used to what she needs to do when she works at the office of the Ability Alliance of West Alabama. The job hand book has pictures of sweeping, mopping, dusting, taking out the garbage, and shredding paper so that the client can associate the pictures with her job tasks. Yet I am taking it one step further and that is teaching her how to read what I have wrote under the pictures over the time she is working with us so that she can have basic reading skills for the benefit of this job that she will with AAWA and any other jobs she will have in the future. Reading skills are important to have and it is never to late for someone to learn how to read as many would say it is hard for people to start learning to read at an older age but to me that is a defeatist attitude to have about the wisdom of learning and the wisdom of getting older. The job coaching that I will be doing will be around the tasks of sweeping, mopping, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, taking out garbages, and shredding papers amongst the offices at the Ability Alliance of West Alabama. I hope that as others from the Tuscaloosa ARC see that Amanda has a good job that they will want my help in getting jobs for them and or in job preparation for them when they need the help. Therefore the success of this particular client on her job can be a good example for other clients of the Ability Alliance of West Alabama that they too can have a job and be able to work.