Conference helps youth with disabilities transition to next chapter

Hundreds of students with disabilities converged on Dover Downs Wednesday as they learned about what lies ahead in life.

More than 700 high-schoolers attended an all-day transition conference focusing on future career and employment goals, as well as learning what’s current in transition services for youth with disabilities in Delaware.

Now in its 15th year, the organizers believe the “Shared Work, Shared Vision, Delaware Community of Practice 2016 Transition and Self-Determination Conference” has and will play a key role in helping students make an informed choice after high school by providing current information through a variety of resources.

“We’re one of the only transitional conferences in the U.S. that includes students and it has grown exponentially from the 100 participants the first year,” said Delaware Department of Labor Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Director Andrea Guest. “All students, including those with disabilities, need to develop a career pathway leading to successful employment, and the transition conference provides tools for self-advocacy and the opportunity for students to learn how to reach their career goals.”

On this one day, parents, teachers and organizations come together to provide resources to help students look to their future career choices and goals. But the learning doesn’t end there, according to Lisa Enright, an instructor for Project SEARCH in the Capital School District in Dover.

“We work together on social and communication skills that are critical for a workplace,” Enright said of the transitional program. “Our program has been very successful in helping our interns prepare for a career.”

In Project SEARCH, students begin the academic year with three weeks of classroom instruction to prepare for the initial internship placement. Once the internships begin, students spend an hour each day on topics such as team building, getting around the workplace, workplace safety, social and communication skills, interviewing skills and career exploration, to name a few.

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Megan and Morgan McCloskey are two of the interns presently in the program. Morgan is working in Plant Operations at Kent General Hospital for her internship, where she pulls weeds on the property and does general outside cleanup work.

A 2016 graduate of Polytech, where she studied horticulture, Morgan has found the transitional program to be very helpful in her pursuit of a job that will allow her to work outdoors.

“I love to work outside and want to do that in the future,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot, especially how to pursue a job and what skills are needed.”

Morgan’s twin sister, Megan, is also working at Bayhealth, where she is interested in early childhood development. Currently, she is learning how to teach people how to sign to communicate with deaf people.

“My parents are deaf, so I’ve been signing since I was a child,” Megan said. “I want to teach others how to communicate that way.”

A big part of the conference are the workshops. This year, there were 17 workshops shaped around the supportive nature of the transition community. There were topics for students with disabilities, parents, teachers and Vocational Rehabilitation staff.

The “You CAN Succeed, Even When You Fail” workshop featured Emmanuel Jenkins, who is wheelchair-bound but doesn’t use that to keep him down.

Jenkins talked about self-advocacy and the experience of failure and how people can learn from it.

“Even if you have failed in life, you can choose to be a success,” Jenkins told more than 200 students attending his workshop. “Life is not what other people make it, it’s what you make it, with choices you make.”

The Delaware Division of Vocational Rehabilitation's mission is to provide individualized services to employers and people with disabilities, developing career pathways that link qualified employees to jobs, resulting in greater independence and a more inclusive workplace. In 2016, DVR placed more than 1,204 people with disabilities into careers and jobs throughout Delaware and the country; more than 300 of those placed were students transitioning from school to employment.

“Students with disabilities need to be prepared by thinking about career planning and employment at earlier ages for many reasons, including that people with disabilities often experience barriers to employment,” said DOL Secretary Patrice Gilliam-Johnson. “This conference is designed to help people understand what it will take to transition from high school to adulthood. This is a growing population, so it’s important they have the programs to support the students.”

The conference was a collaborative effort between the Delaware Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR), the Department of Education (DOE), Division for Visually Impaired (DVI), and the Division of Development Disabilities Services (DDDS) along with a variety of other agencies and organizations.

A father from Wilmington who attended the conference with his son said the conference is greatly needed.

“The information coming out of this conference is essential,” said D.C. Brown, whose son attends Dickinson High School in Wilmington. “Having Delawareans informed that there is help is critical for those making the transition into the next part of their lives.”

For more information about the conference and school to career transition services, visit https://dvr.delawareworks.com/.

Jerry smith can be reached at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.