My Experience with Job Coaches
In 2001 I graduated from Finneytown High School in the suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio. I was actively seeking employment because I was turning 18 later that year. I had a job coach/developer/someone like that through Ohio Valley Goodwill Industries who helped me with community job applications before I actually participated in their sheltered workshop the following year. Due to my Asperger’s I take every word I read to the most literal extreme and don’t apply for most of the job
Sheltered Workshop Employment Programs
A Sheltered Workshop is an employment program for people with severe disabilities, especially severe cognitive disabilities. To my knowledge, these programs are only available through developmental disabilities services systems in each U.S. state. Sheltered Workshop programs don’t really teach social skills despite the fact that the intellectually challenged also need social skills training, in many cases even more so than us autistic folks. They focus exclusively on building
