By Bryanna Valderrama
Herald Intern
I will be able to identify my rights. I will be able to practice self-advocacy. This is the learning goal for the self-advocacy and rights lesson in an Inspire of Central Florida life skills class. Inspire of Central Florida located at 1095 Belle Ave. in Casselberry is the largest and longest standing special needs adult training facility in Central Florida. Inspire not only offers the resources for employment opportunities but also offers life skill lessons and activities for the Specialists they serve.
Originally established back in 1980, Inspire started off as a small center with only five Contract Fulfillment Specialists. Through community support Inspire was able to grow into the large facility they are today.
Inspire of Central Florida strives to help their Specialists be independent and productive in their learning and work efforts. Operations Manager Liliana Continanzi, explains how things have changed for Inspire within the past couple of years.
“Things have shifted in the last two to three years,” said Continanzi. “The Agency for Persons with Disabilities, who provides the funding for the majority of the individuals we serve really wanted to put an emphasis on providing more than just employment opportunities, but also more life skills.”
Continanzi explains that now instead of 100% of the work they do just being contract fulfillment the operations have shifted gears to 90% being life skills and 10% of the Specialists now being Inspire staff that are hired on to the contract fulfillment center.
While Inspire offers multiple programs including: production, wood shop, life skills and Inspire Living, Operation G.R.O.W. deals more with developing career skills and connecting Specialists with compatible careers.
According to the Inspire homepage Operation G.R.O.W. stands for Giving Real Opportunities for Work. The homepage also said it is a volunteer internship program that combines both classroom instruction and real-world experience to provide an environment where the interns can sharpen their career skills and improve their employability. This program was created to be a bridge between high functioning special needs adults and compatible careers with local businesses.
Operation G.R.O.W. Coordinator Kennedi Martin explains more about the phases involved in this program.
“Every individual that comes, we ask them about their goals, everyone is here mainly because they have goals for independence skills typically,” said Martin. “Sometimes that can include life skills or sometimes that can include life skills and employment skills.”
Martin explains that typically when individuals start, they’ve never had employment before or they weren’t able to keep the job. So, if they come to Inspire and express interest in getting employment then they will have the individuals wait about a month so that the staff can get to know them, establish what their goals are and see what a good fit for them would be.
Once initiated into the program they start at just the Operation G.R.O.W. level. This consists of attending classes and skill and career assessments just to figure out where the individuals want to go. As the Inspire staff feel like their skills are growing through the Monday through Thursday life skills classes, attendance at the cafe and volunteering then the staff can see the progress and see where the individual's skills are strongest for future careers.
The second phase, G.R.O.W. more, involves working on resume skills, building their resume, applying for jobs and interviewing. During this phase the individuals are assigned a job coach who works with them one on one to help them develop their resume further.
Martin explains that the last phase is called G.R.O.W. out and basically what this means is that once the individual secures employment the coordinators push in with them at their place of employment for the job.
“We push in with them for the job and we also work around social security benefits or anything else that might be a hindrance in any other way to someone who’s outside of the little bubble we are in,” explained Martin. “There’s a lot of misconceptions about employing someone with a disability but we work with the managers and educate them a little bit about disabilities in general because truly these guys are the best to employ.”
Through partnerships with local organizations and businesses Inspire of Central Florida is able to connect with the community, educate staff and managers of these businesses and break down any barriers or doubts that come with employing an adult with special needs. A big opportunity for that connection is the training Inspire does with the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office.
“The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office puts all their deputies during their training period through a day here at Inspire and so they get to sit in the groups and interact with the individuals we serve and learn from them,” said Continanzi.
Whether it's local businesses, management, deputies or family and loved ones of adults with special needs, Inspire will never turn down the chance to educate, support and connect the work they do with the community.
For individuals with special needs whether they just want to come to Inspire to learn life skills, seek employment opportunities or connect with their community, Inspire staff wants them to feel supported, know that they have many choices and that they can take any program at their own pace.
“It’s really all based on choices,” said Continanzi. “We really try to help them self-advocate and say if it’s not something that you're choosing today it’s totally fine we have other options for you to engage in.”
In terms of a projected goal, Inspire hopes to be able to build off one of their current programs Inspire Living to partner with individuals to open more group homes. Continanzi explains that this is a great need in the community because a lot of their Specialists are living with elderly parents or families who don’t have a plan for them if something happens to them.
If the Specialists don’t have anywhere to go, they become wards of the state and go to a group home anyway. The goal would provide the Specialists with the opportunity to live more independently and not have their entire lives be shifted after the passing of a loved one. The Inspire life skills lessons and activities that the Specialists are taking teach them different skills to act independently and contributes to their future living.
