Journey Skills Podcast

Job carving can help create sustainable employment opportunities according to this week’s podcast guest Neil Willows from Pure Innovations Neil is the Assistant Internship Contract Manager at Pure Innovations which is based in Manchester in the UK. His role is focused on using supported internships to help young people gain work skills and find long-term employment. Neil explains how their supported internship programme works helping to develop real employability skills. They work with local companies to provide a range of work placements and job opportunities for young people. Ongoing support is also provided to the employer and their staff. Some have limited experience of working with young people with additional needs and so, having a support system really helps them ensure any issues are dealt with quickly and effectively. Neil talks about how one of the most important aspects of this type of training is around building the young person’s confidence and allowing them to showcase their talent to employers.

Tennis, because of its repetitive nature, is an excellent therapeutic tool which can develop not only physical skills but also builds language and social skills, according to this week’s podcast guest Lisa Pugliese, from Love Serving Autism. Lisa is the founder and CEO of Lover Serving Autism and has combined her skills as an ex-professional tennis player and Speech-Language Pathologist to develop an innovative program that uses tennis to help young people on the autism spectrum develop skills. These can include the physical skills around increased fine and gross motor coordination and hand-eye coordination. In addition, other benefits include providing aerobic and cardiovascular exercise, as well as improving speed, flexibility, and agility. Playing tennis also helps to increase visual and auditory processing skills. Lisa explains how the program is also useful in developing the language and social skills of young people. Many of them are reluctant to try anything new because they prefer to know what’s comin

The job of a parent is to be there whatever and whenever for your child – those are the rules! That certainly applies to Claire Sutton, this week’s podcast guest. Claire shares her truly inspiring, but sometimes heart-breaking, story. Her daughter Jade, who is now 14 years old, has ADHD. The road to getting Jade diagnosed was drawn out. As Claire put it, Jade “slipped through the cracks of the education system.” Her early school years were a struggle and it wasn’t until year 5 that she was formally diagnosed. Claire and her family moved across the country and enrolled Jade in a much smaller school that was better equipped for Jade’s needs. Unfortunately, even though Jade seemed happier, her struggles continued. By the time Jade started secondary school, Claire had discovered the heart-breaking news that Jade had been self-harming for over a year. Jade had managed to hide this from her family, and when it was discovered Jade was adamant that she didn’t want any external help. This is when Claire realized that

What happens to young people with additional needs when they finish full-time education? How will they find employment? How will they cope on their own throughout adulthood?. One organization helping to provide some of the answers to these questions is Invictus Enterprises based in New York. In this week’s podcast, we hear from Alison Berkely co-founder of Invictus Enterprises about how they are helping young people with autism acquire the work skills they need to get into paid sustainable employment. Alison talks about the challenges of getting the training program started and explains the benefits of basing the training program in the culinary industry. The first product launched was No Bones About It dog biscuits which have proved to be a commercial success with the profits being used to fund the training of even more people. Alison talked about the need to teach both hard and soft skills. Invictus Enterprises have a support team with a variety of professional backgrounds and they help support the individu

Successful sustainable employment opportunities for young people with additional needs comes when support is provided for not just the young person but also for their employer too. This is the message in this week’s podcast with Lisa Campbell-Squires from Team Domenica. Team Domenica is a social enterprise charity with a vision to help people with additional needs reach their full potential in the workplace. Lisa explained how Team Domenica was started by Rosa Monckton in response to her own daughter’s lack of training and employment opportunities. They now operate a café (Café Domenica) as well as training facilities and work with local employers using a supported internship model.  Lisa also spoke of her own journey and why she had been inspired to get involved with helping young people with additional needs access employment opportunities.   Lisa explained the various programs on offer at Team Domenica, which includes a first-year introductory program that works on developing communication skills, social s

To truly learn, it has to be caught rather than taught is the mantra of this week’s podcast with Diane King, author and special needs teacher. One way to do this and at the same time develop childrens’ self-worth is through storytelling and creativity. We start with Diane’s own journey which has been an interesting one. As a child Diane was a selective mute and struggled to communicate with the world; that was until her sister introduced her to the magic of storytelling. Diane found that through storytelling she could release the built-up emotions she had kept hidden. She also decided quite young she would become a teacher and help children who were struggling as she had. Over her years as a teacher working with children with additional needs, she noticed that the vast majority of children had speech and language issues which limited their ability to communicate impacting on their confidence. After working with speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and educational psychologists she realized the imp

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right,” according to Henry Ford: this week's podcast guest Marjorie Madfis clearly believes this to be true. With Yes She Can Inc., Marjorie has not only created employment opportunities for her own daughter, but she has also created a training process which other parents can use to help their children develop better employability skills. In essence, by using the same processes she has used, you too could create a sustainable business to help young people with additional needs to gain work. Marjorie starts off by explaining why she started Yes She Can Inc., which is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping young women with autism spectrum disorders develop transferable job skills. Marjorie watched as her own daughter received job skills training which simply wasn’t fit for purpose and which wasn’t teaching the right job skills that would help her to get a job. Her daughters' dream job was working for American Girl, a doll production compa

Do you need more sleep because your child needs more sleep? Maybe this weeks guest can help.Vicki Dawson is the CEO of The Children’s Sleep Charity and helped write the Children and Young People’s Sleep Manifesto presented to the UK government, which argued among other things for quality sleep support to be available for all families and for sleep to be recognised as a vital component of mental health. Vicki was once a sleep deprived mum who struggled to get enough sleep at night and had no time to take a nap during the day. She realised how little help there is for people suffering from sleep deprivation or sleep issues with children. So Vicki decided to take things into her own hands and launched The Children’s Sleep Charity in 2012. Vicki explains the process of helping a parent who comes to the charity for advice. They usually discover the charity via social media or by word of mouth. The first step is to talk to a sleep practitioner who helps to identify the causes. Vicki stresses how key it is to unders

What is Dyspraxia? If you don’t know or if you do and want to know more this week’s podcast is for you My guest Christine Draper has written a book called My Friend Josh has Dyspraxia to help more people understand dyspraxia and, more importantly, help more people understand what it means for her son Luke who has dyspraxia. Christine strives to spread awareness about the condition to help people have a better understanding of Dyspraxia. Christine starts by explaining her journey with Luke and the early days of getting a diagnosis. Concerned about her son constant dribbling, Christine took Luke to the doctor who initially dismissed it as the normal dribbling of a young child. However, Christine persisted and was finally referred with Luke to a paediatrician.  Luke was diagnosed with Oral Dyspraxia and later on diagnosed with General Dyspraxia. Christine explains Dyspraxia in simple terms and talks about her son’s challenges with Dyspraxia. She explains how it impacts on his communication and coordination and h

Everyone needs a Shed – a place to go, to be. But this Shed is much more than that, it is a space for people with additional needs to build independence and work skills and engage with their local community.  On this week’s Podcast, we hear from Clive Harris, the founder of The Shed. The Shed provides a community-based education and training service to help adults with additional needs develop their independent living skills. The Shed also offers a range of clubs and events for people to build social skills.  Clive explains how, when The Shed began, he wanted a location that was in the middle of the local community so it became entwined with the community. Thus, it would become part of a broader, educational environment where everybody in the community learns about the people they support, and the people they support learn about the community they live in.  One of the primary goals of The Shed is to help adults with additional needs find employment. The Shed has a shop selling upcycled furniture. The students

Work is central to most of our lives. It not only provides a purpose to our day but also makes us feel an integral part of the society we live in. In this week’s podcast we hear about the Project Search program, being run at the Marriott Hotel in Heathrow UK, which provides an innovative approach to help young people with additional needs find paid employment. The people responsible for running the program are Maxine Simpson, course tutor, Sue Stock, job coach and Saimmah Ali, job developer. Maxine explains briefly the history of Project Search, which originated in the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in 1996. She talks about how the program works and how the interns take part in lessons at the beginning of the workday on building teamwork and personal skills. This is then followed by their placement within a department at the hotel. At the end of the day, there is a debrief where interns have the chance to talk about their day and review any problems or issues they experienced. Sue talks about how, along with

Friendships and purpose are two of the most important things to have in our lives. For young people with additional needs finding these can sometimes be a challenge. In part 2 of Stepping back Milla Johnson, an Occupational Therapist, and Lisa Campbell, a Speech and Language Therapist, discuss how to manage friendships and access work opportunities. When it comes to friendships Lisa and Milla recommend having conversations to help young people understand that friendship is a two-way street and teaching them how to identify the qualities of a good friendship.  They suggest that as a parent, you’re also their role model and so need to be demonstrating how friendships work.  They also suggest that one way to develop social skills needed for friendships is to help our children get involved in social-focused activities within the community. This can open the door of opportunity for them to make friends in a secure and safe environment with other young people. Another option is to use a buddy system where you link

The challenge of stepping back and letting our children take risks and make mistakes is never easy. How to deal with this challenge is the theme of this week’s podcast where I speak to Lisa Campbell, a Speech and Language Therapist, and Milla Johnson, an Occupational Therapist. Lisa and Milla discuss why parents/carers should try to step back more to enable their children to develop the skills they will need to live independently. The main focus of our conversation is around how to develop the daily living skills needed to live independently. These include shopping, independent travel and money skills. Milla and Lisa offer practical ideas on how to develop these skills. For shopping that can include having a categorized shopping list and thinking about what time to go shopping.  When it comes to encouraging financial independence and learning how to manage money, Lisa and Milla talk about the technology which can help as well as how to make family activities, like going to the movies, opportunities to practic

Planning ahead helps us reach our goals, and although we can’t prepare for everything, a plan gives us a general direction to travel and can even help us identify a final destination. In this week’s episode, we hear from Laura who has helped her son Jonathon plan ahead. This planning has enabled him to create a vision for his independent future, as well as prepare for the unexpected. We start Laura’s story with Jonathan at primary school struggling to access education but finally, after a legal fight, he was placed in a school which could provide the support he needed. Jonathon is now 19 and just about to leave full-time education. Laura spoke about a variety of issues they have worked on related to independence including cooking, cleaning, shopping and learning to drive. Laura talks about enabling her son to be independent but in a very structured way. One important part of Laura’s strategy was always planning ahead, particularly when it comes to thinking about work.  She suggests sitting down with your chil

A social enterprise must first achieve success as an enterprise before they can deliver on any of their social objectives, that is the message from this week's podcast guest David Hunter. David is the CEO of Acceptable Enterprises Ltd (AEL) who are based in Larne, Northern Ireland and provide employment opportunities for young people with additional needs. AEL do this across a diverse range of industries from manafacturing bottled water to selling products online. The innovative array of industries in which AEL operate in has resulted in a very successful business in terms of both turnover and providing an increasing number of work opportunities for young people with additional needs. One of the successful businesses is an ethical bottled water line called 'Clearer Water,' each bottle has a unique trace code that a consumer can type into an app on their phone. Doing this provides a stream of information such as the PH rating, mineral content and temperature of the product BUT it also delivers information abou

The term ‘letting go’ means different things to different people. Sometimes as parents we have to let go of our own expectations of what our children’s lives will look like.This was the case for this week’s guest Fiona who found that once she let of her own expectations it opened up a new world of possibilities. Originally from the UK but now living in the US Fiona shares her story about why she believes letting go of expectations was the best solution for her family. Fiona has two sons with autism and she starts by talking about the struggles to get a diagnosis for her oldest son, Hamish, so that he could get the support he needed. Part of the problem was that because her son was coping with the school work but not with the school environment the professional couldn’t really see a problem. However, once he was observed in school the issues were acknowledged although it did take another 18 months to get the actual diagnosis. Fiona also talks about those early school years and about how engaging with other par

One day soon people with additional needs will be valued as contributors to society and not just as passive recipients of social care, this is the vision that Matt and Steve from Skillnet Group share in this episode.   Skillnet Group support people with additional needs into employment. They do this through creating projects to develop work related skills and through providing supported internships with employers. Matt is the Chief executive of Skillnet group and Steve is a former client, who is now a Non-Executive Director and acts as a mentor to the young people on internships with employers. As Steve explains he also spends a lot of his time educating employers as to why people with additional needs make great employees. Steve talks about his journey where his initial involvement with Skillnet group was through attending courses they put on; something he quickly decided wasn’t for him. He explains how he believed his strengths and interests lay in talking to others and helping to change their attitudes amo

The best way to boost the self-esteem of our children is to let them have their say, give them a voice and help them to feel a sense of control, according to Soli Lazarus this week’s podcast guest. Soli has a son with ADHD and so knows some of the struggles parents have first hand, as well as being a teacher for over 30 years. Her consultancy Yellow Sun delivers support and advice to parents of children with additional needs and challenging behaviour.  Soli believes one of the biggest issues for children with additional needs is suffering from low self-esteem due to society pressuring them from a young age to conform to the ‘norm’. Children may interrupt, be disorganised, be inattentive and so from an early age they are branded as naughty and constantly being told off. Consequently, their self-esteem plummets.     To help deal with this Soli talks about how important it is to provide our children with routine, whilst also giving them responsibilities so that they can be rewarded and praised. She discusses the

"We all want friends, a misconception about people on the spectrum is that they don't want friends" Jamie Wheeler tells us in this week’s podcast.  Jamie runs Austen's Autistic Adventures, based in Richardson, Texas, a social group where people over the age of 18 can meet friends and engage in fun activities to develop their social skills. Jamie explains that when her daughter graduated from High School, she lost her peer group as people moved on with the next stages of their lives. Where her daughter had once found comfort in the school choir and theatre groups, there was suddenly a void. Determined to ensure that her daughter didn't remain alone, she gave up her career as a college professor and launched a programme that was financially accessible to all and provided daily activities to allow members to experience real friendship relationships and reap the benefits of being part of a social group. Jamie talks about the challenges of setting up the project and the ongoing battles she has with funding. She ta

It is possible to create a viable business while employing people with additional needs and this week’s podcast guest proves that. Nick O'Shea is the founder of Ignition Brewery in London, a successful business employing people with additional needs. At Ignition Brewery it's all about the beer because as Nick has found his customers don't mind who's making the beer as long as it tastes good! Nick's journey started whilst he was a regular volunteer at a UK charities event (Mencap's Tuesday Club) - where people with additional needs meet to socialise. He noticed that most of the people he talked to there wanted 2 things a relationship and a job. Nick didn't want to start a matchmaking service, so he decided to find a way to employ people with additional needs. He looked for a business which was labour-intensive and had repetitive tasks which would suit the people he would eventually employ, but that would also lead to an economically viable business. Ignition Brewery was the result. Nick explains it has not bee