The Value of Employment

Last legislative session, two bills were passed of great importance to Brandon.  One bill includes a benefit in his Medicaid wavier program to help him learn how to work, find a job and maintain a job.  The other bill says that Texas is now an employment first state.  That means that the Medicaid waiver program and the schools must assume that Brandon can work first while developing his plan for the year.  Why is this so important.  For a young man with special needs, Brandon just wants to be like his peers.  He wants to work, he wants friends and he wants to socialize.  He doesn't want to sit at home all day with paid workers doing nothing.  He wants to be valued for his role in life as a dependable, joyful, and easy going employee.  But he also needs a job to further his socialization, find new adult friends, and find his place in his work life like all young men starting their career.   For this to be accomplished, Brandon must learn work skills just like he has learned how to read, how to walk, how to swallow and many more things that don't come naturally for him. Brandon has been working on job skills for several years and has a resume of several jobs he has been learning.  For me, success for his transition will be a job or several jobs in place with a regular schedule by the time Brandon has completed his school Adult Transition Program.  Even better would be those jobs are paid jobs Brandon can sustain for years to come.  Two years ago Brandon applied to DARS (Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services) for services to assess him for his job skills and to help him find and keep a job. But Brandon was denied services because Brandon did not meet the DARS standard for "competitive employment".  This really mad me mad because I didn't want Brandon to think he cant work.  That would really be discouraging to a young man who has worked so hard all his life to be just like all his other peers and head off to his job for the future.  So, I have worked very closely with the school to assure that Brandon is learning as much as possible for him to obtain a job and hope that Brandon will continue to receive employment assistance as he finds his way to a great job match for him.

Brandon has had many jobs since we began job training in high school.  He has worked at a library sorting and filing books; several food banks; the attorney general office assembling packets; a fitness center cleaning and sweeping, a pet store, a non-profit disability organization working on a disability project,  delivering newspapers at school, a tanning saloon cleaning and sweeping, a business group sorting and shredding and a local hospital sorting medical records.  He also goes to the KOOP radio on Tuesdays for the Beatles Radio Show and helps pick out music.  With all the volunteer jobs he has had, the one that seems to best fit him is sorting and delivering mail.  He has had all these jobs that has helped him lead up to a great volunteer job at the University of Texas.  He was able to obtain this job as a result of the transition pilot program Brandon participated in last school year.  He loves this job because the work he does is a good match for him.  Sorting the mail and delivering the mail.  It is also a great match because he has interaction with many people.  This is helping him develop good socialization skills.  He really loves being around people, especially if they like him.  The job also is good for developing Brandon's communication skills.  We are working with UT speech and his private speech therapist to develop responses to questions, for him to ask questions and provide input to other staff.  He is really getting so much better interacting with other people.  This will help him develop more friends in the future and better job opportunities.  He really likes this job mainly because everyone at the job really supports and encourages him.

Brandon works at UT 2 times per week in the afternoon.  As we look to life after school in a little over a year, I also have to look at where will Brandon live.  I have been really thinking about what is best for Brandon and the family.  I am leaning toward Brandon living in Dripping Springs where my brother and I can be back-ups to the crazy schedule I know Brandon will be have each day and to be a little closer in case of medical issues.  In order for this to work well, we are looking for other job opportunities closer to the house in addition to the UT job.  This has proven to be a challenge.  Brandon is volunteering at a few other sites but has not been able to find a great match.  I know that acquiring work for people with disabilities is very difficult and maintaining the work is even harder.  I am determined to hang in there with Brandon until we find that right job match.  I will continue to blog on this because this is a very crucial part of transition for Brandon and many of his friends finding their place in the job market.  I leave you with a great video the UT transition program did of Brandon at UT.  First is a video of Brandon in his job at UT and the second UT talking about having Brandon learn work skills through this program and how it changed their perceptions.

Enjoy.

Brandon working at UT
https://utexas.app.box.com/s/qq18dfzkwphb5wwv91ec

UT Dept of Kinesology interview
https://utexas.app.box.com/s/j0av46l0a5ql57xrc2nm