JCC to offer jobs for disabled adults

Career initiative for adults with special needs to bridge unemployment gap, increase independence

BY CAMERYN OAKES

The Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center will soon be employing adults with disabilities with the help of a $35,000 grant to continue its mission of supporting individuals with special needs and bridging their unemployment gap.

The JCC’s Vocational Life Skills Training Center is a year-round, day habilitation program that provides adults 21 and older with special needs vocational training, educational workshops, life skills training and socialization opportunities.

The center’s day habilitation program caters to about 35 participants and the whole center provides for about 50 individuals.

Individuals with special needs can attend high school until they are 21 years old, so the center continues education and support for individuals when they age out of local schools.

Heather Schulz, the director of the Vocational Life Skills Training Center, said the purpose of the center is to assist individuals’ in their quest for independence.

Schulz said the center received a $35,000 grant from the UJA-Federation which will go towards paid jobs at the JCC for program participants.

Individuals would be earning $16 an hour.

“Our hope is that it will motivate some individuals to work towards a paid job right here and then open up other opportunities,” Schulz said.

This grant will allow for the JCC cafe to be open for extended hours and provide paid job opportunities at the cafe for individuals with disabilities.

Reconstruction is planned for the

JCC’s cafe, which has not started yet but is projected to be done by midSeptember. Once this is completed, the paid job opportunities will start.

While center members are encouraged to apply for these jobs in the future, she said the job postings are open to anyone in the community with a disability.

Schulz said the grant is crucial in creating employment opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities.

In tandem with the center’s future paid job opportunities, it also offers unpaid internships for center participants to learn vocational skills.

Program Without Walls provides internships at the Sid Jacobson JCC as well as local businesses like Abeetza Pizza, Heritage Farm and Gardens, Holiday Farms and Preen Pets.

Internships at the JCC include working at the Gezunter Cafe, Community Needs Bank, maintenance and clerical assignments.

“So we support all of the departments here,” Schulz said.

The center also runs the Birthday and Anniversaries Committee, which is in charge of mailing cards to JCC members for their birthdays and anniversaries. She said not only is the

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