Welcome to the Expanding Worlds Podcast
Recent episodes
102 Bridging The Gap – Forward2Employment: Reimagining The Future
In this part 2 of my conversation with the team at Forward2Employment (F2E) the focus is on the role of the job coach as well as hearing from current interns and from graduates of the supported internships program. Two of the job coaches, Robert Harris and Christine Richards, talk about why their role encompasses more than just coaching the intern in the workplace but also helping them build the skills they need as they move on from this program. We hear from some of the current interns
101 Bridging The Gap – Forward2Employment: Building The Foundations For Change
In this episode of the Bridging The Gap series I’m talking to the team at Forward2Employment (F2E) about their supported internships program. This episode is really about getting the foundations in place with Liz Halton, the Head of F2E, explaining why the program came about and how it was created as well as the vision of F2E to change the employment expectations of young people with additional needs. Angie Gillett, the Employment Engagement Officer, discusses how they have
100 Celebrating the 100th Episode and the stops on the journey so far
Time for a celebration and to reflect on the journey so far. It all started out with an idea that there had to be more out there for my daughter. I saw that she and other children, with additional needs, need extra support, in specific areas, to build the skills that will enable them to live more independently as adults. This became our Route Map, and the topics of the podcast. There are 4 lines on the Route Map: Purpose, Daily Living, Relationships and Financial Independence.
Articles
A Guide To Friendship
How many friends do you have? Possibly not as many as you had before you had a child with additional needs. This is a harsh but true fact. Friends slowly disappear because they don’t understand or they’re afraid. I have both lost and gained friends because my daughter has additional needs. It’s a bit like when someone passes away some people come around others stay away because they don’t know what to say.
Start Early And Often
My ultimate objective is to get rid of my daughter. That’s not quite as bad as it sounds! My goal is to enable my youngest daughter to move out and live in a place of her own. When I have spoken on the podcast to people involved in training programs, one common theme has been that often the young people that come to them lack some of the basic daily living skills.
Why A Saturday Job Is So Valuable
What’s in a part time or Saturday job? An awful lot, I believe, if you’re a young person with additional needs. I should qualify that by acknowledging that for some young people there will be restrictions on the kind of jobs they can hold down because of the nature of their needs.
Our Focus
Young people with additional needs should have the opportunity to live independently in a way right for them. The podcast is about sharing stories and sharing solutions that enable parents and carers to support them on this path to greater independence.
Independence for most people consists of three things:
1) Having a Purpose for the day – usually paid employment, but possibly a place to go to make a contribution to the world.
2) Having the Daily Living skills for independence – being able to look after ourselves, cooking, shopping.
3) Having Relationships with family, friends and maybe even a partner one day.
There is also an additional consideration that serves as the foundation of all these – Financial Security. Like it or not money often dictates how we live our lives, and we need to confront the issue of how our children will survive financially when we are gone.
For more information visit redgiraffesolutions.com. Here you can access a FREE course on Building A Vision For Your Child’s Future.
All Episodes
99 Bridging The Gap – The Oaks Specialist College: The Results
In this the second part of my conversation with staff and students from The Oaks Specialist College it’s all about the results. We hear from Joshua Epstein, the Careers Leader, about his role and the importance of job coaches but also making sure the young people they work with develop skills they can use when any support is removed. I also speak to five of the students from The Oaks about their experiences of work. Every single one of them has a clear presumption of employment evidence that the approach at the Oaks is actually bridging that gap
98 Bridging The Gap – The Oaks Specialist College: The Vision
In this the first episode of a new series on Bridging The Gap I’m talking to two people from The Oaks Specialist College based in the UK. This episode is really about vision. Gordon Tillman, the CEO, discusses why The Oaks came into existence and its role not only in changing the lives of the young people it supports but also changing the perceptions of businesses and communities. Jackie Thurtle, the Project Manager at The Oaks, discusses the challenges with bringing the vision into reality
97 Ways Into Work – Perceptions and Parents: Why Both Matter So Much
In this the final episode of this Ways into Work series I’m doing a solo episode to talk about my learnings from the past 8 episodes. It’s definitely not a recap of the previous episodes but more my ideas around the two things I see as being pivotal in enabling many more young people to get into paid employment.
Firstly perceptions, if we change these we change everything. The soft bigotry of low expectations is there for young people with additional needs and through employment