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Student-Directed Job Searches:
Project WISER in Montana

by Ellen Condon and Alicia Ruggles

Alicia Ruggles is a high school senior in Polson, Montana who will be graduating this spring. When she turned 18 on December 21st she became her own guardian, which means that she gets to make decisions about employment and who will provide support to her on her job. Through Project WISER, a national Transition Model Demonstration Grant directed by the University of Montana Rural Institute, and operating at Polson High School, Alicia and other students with significant disabilities are supported to gain access to employment as a postschool outcome. Model components include individualized discovery of each student’s strengths, interests, and support needs utilizing a planning tool called the Vocational Profile; individualized longitudinal career planning and job experience beginning with school-based jobs for students younger than 16; and individually developed community jobs for students age 16 and older. The model also builds Social Security Work Incentives into the transition planning process at each pilot school to maximize the student- and family-controlled resources available to support employment for each student.

Alicia’s PASS (Plan for Achieving Self-Support) was approved earlier this year and gave her money to pay someone to help her to find a job, learn the job, and get to and from work since she doesn’t drive. Her IEP team was committed to helping her develop and learn a job before she graduates on the first of June. Since the PASS plan is a source of money that she controls, she chose who to hire to help with that employment process using her PASS funds. With another student and teacher she developed a list of questions to ask people who wanted to help her find a job. Her student aide then typed them on the computer for her. Her friend’s sister, Amanda, and another teacher, Nannette, wanted to be her job coach, so with assistance from her support person to set up the speaker phone, she called them and set up times to meet. She asked Carrie, her student aide, and one of the paraprofessionals to sit in the interviews to assist her to remember the questions she wanted to ask, or to help interpret what she was saying in case Amanda didn’t understand her words. Some of the questions she asked were: “When can you work – nights, weekends, or day time?”, “How will you teach me a new job task?”, “How will you ensure that I am happy with the job coaching you are providing and my job?” She says that she felt powerful getting to ask the questions.

Two years ago Alicia began trying out different jobs at her school and in the community. In the beginning, she always had a job coach with her. The job coach helped her do the tasks she couldn’t do by herself such as opening doors, grasping things, picking things up if she dropped them, setting up her work station and sometimes explaining or interpreting what she said to her bosses. She found it frightening when her team members began talking about her going to a job by herself, and at first she told them that she would always need a job coach. Then they talked about leaving her only when she felt comfortable that she could do the job herself and when she knew her coworkers. “Now if I had somebody in the room when I got there I would be okay by myself,” she says. She also wants to have a cell phone so that she can reach someone immediately if she needs to.

Now that Alicia has tried different jobs, like delivering mail between the middle and high school, making deliveries at the hospital, and volunteering at the Assisted Living Center, she has learned what things help her to work by herself, what kinds of help she needs, what jobs she likes, and what jobs she does well. Her IEP team has also developed a Vocational Profile for her, which is a document that summarizes all the information they have learned and discovered about her and that will assist her to develop or identify a job that she can do. Her team discovered her talents and gifts by spending time with her in new environments such as shopping, and in familiar environments such as the school. They all began to realize how much she could contribute to an employer. During her employment planning meeting, “a meeting with lots of people talking about things I can do well”, people wrote things down on flipchart paper but “only when I said it was o.k.” or correct. They listed things she could contribute, including: “has a fantastic memory”; “is observant and aware of schedules, her own as well as all other students’ and staffs’”; “pays attention to detail and can point out errors or something that is out of place”; “likes to help people and is always offering assistance to solve problems”; “has a great sense of humor”; and “gets along well with coworkers.” Next, they listed job tasks that she can do and, finally, employers in Polson that may meet her “ideal conditions of employment” where she could make a contribution. Some of the team members thought she would be good at quality control, but she told them “no.” She liked the idea of working at the hospital, perhaps because she knows many of the people there and feels comfortable there. She chose to put that first on her job development list above the ideas of banks or schools.

Her paraprofessional developed a picture marketing portfolio for her, which her job developer took to the employers that she chose at her planning meeting. The pictures in her portfolio show the employers what she can do and what she can contribute.

Alicia now has a job. A customized paid work experience was developed for her at a local day care center, and she recently returned from that job announcing, “I got hired!” She will be working 20 hours a week as an aide, helping to supervise the children, read them stories, and help keep the schedule on track. She also continues her volunteer position at the Assisted Living Center. One of her financial goals is to put money into a savings account to pay for changes to her future house to make it accessible.

Ellen Condon is Project Director at the Rural Institute on Disabilities at the University of Montana, Missoula. Alicia Ruggles is a participant in Project WISER, a project directed by the Institute and funded through the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Ellen may be reached at 406/243-5467 or by e-mail at condon@selway.umt.edu.

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