This summer Trellis partnered with Vocational Rehabilitation counselors at Oregon Commission for the Blind (OCB) in participation with their Summer Work Experience Program (SWEP). SWEP provides opportunities for high school-age students to gain real-world work experience with local businesses, learn transferable skills, complete job specific tasks and increase on-the-job skills. All students receive payment for their work in the program. Trellis Job Developers and Job Coaches worked with the OCB to identify the interests and availability of program participants, then connected with businesses around the community to gather employer opportunities. Trellis Job Coaches then worked closely with the participants to provide support, on-the-job guidance and even transportation to and from their jobs.
Juan C.’s Experience
First-time SWEP participant Juan lost his vision three years ago in a car accident at the age of 16. After recovering from severe injuries and seven months spent in a coma, his extreme lack of stamina has kept him from spending much time outside the home. With these current barriers in mind, OCB placed Juan as an Intern Door Greeter at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) for his summer work experience. Trellis Program Specialist Kamela learned more about Juan by meeting with him and his family before the program began and knew that while he was nervous, he was also excited, as he was very ready to take some steps toward adulthood. Juan also takes educational courses in orientation and mobility, Braille and basics of living with blindness through the OCB, so the SWEP program was complementary to other areas of learning and development for him.
Support for Success
Door Greeters’ jobs are to sit at the entrance of OMSI and greet visitors as they arrive. Door Greeters also get asked a lot of questions by guests and have to know how to direct and respond to common needs. Juan studied a list of FAQs before starting the role to become more familiar with the things he might be asked and started engaging with guests more after hearing his colleagues in conversation. Juan and Kamela initiated some helpful nonverbal supports to help direct his focus, using one or two taps on the shoulder to indicate which direction guests were arriving from. These cues were very helpful for Juan in the echoey entrance, a space that makes it extra-challenging for a blind person to concentrate on a single voice and its establish its direction. Some of Juan’s colleagues also utilized this nonverbal model as well, which allowed him to feel confident greeting guests and gave him ongoing agency and direction. He was shy initially, but grew to greet visitors with gusto, adding friendly notes like “Have a great time!” or “Hey kiddos, have fun!” to kids’ camp groups.
Meeting Challenges
The transition to adulthood is a challenge for everyone. It’s not easy or comfortable to begin exploring a whole new adult world — a world filled with new people, new obstacles and unfamiliar social constructs. For Juan and other blind clients, these obstacles are magnified by additional physical barriers, making this time period even more challenging. During the five weeks of the SWEP experience, Juan learned a lot of new things: how to get in and out of an unfamiliar vehicle, how to walk from a large parking lot into an even larger building, how to find and use a public restroom, how to enter codes in a keypad to access employee rooms, how to find his volunteer vest and locker and how engage with other volunteers. All these skills will be helpful to him as he takes on the larger challenge of learning how to navigate as a blind person in a seeing-dominant world. Most importantly, Juan gained independence and confidence to continue meeting challenges and developing new skills.
Opportunity
We know this summer’s work experience program is just the beginning of a lot of new opportunities for the clients OCB and Trellis support. Five weeks can pack in a lot of growth and development! These quickly learning students will take everything they experienced and apply it — to their continuing education, to future work and volunteering and to their day-to-day living.
Learn more about what our team does here, or see open roles here.
