A job-preparedness program for neurodivergent individuals celebrated a new class of graduates on Friday.
The Be Ready Jobseekers course is a 10-week program hosted by First Place—Phoenix, an apartment community for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Natasha Grant Holmberg is the director of employment and workforce development at First Place. She said the course teaches foundational job readiness and digital literacy skills.
“So they're going to learn interview skills, how to properly write a resume," Grant Holmberg said. "We're also going to dive into, ‘How do you identify what you're interested in?’ as well as your skills, but also, ‘What are the things that you might need to work on?’”
The course aims to fill gaps in disability employment by ensuring that neurodivergent individuals have access to the information they need in an accessible format.
“Some of us are able to just go online and be like, ‘Oh, resume help. Oh, I need to learn this,'" Grant Holmberg said. "It might be accessible to us, but that doesn't mean it's accessible to everyone, and it doesn't mean it's being put in a way that they can understand or in a space where they feel comfortable to ask questions.”
Participants must be 16 years old, but do not have to live at First Place to enroll in the free class, which is offered twice a year.
Whitney Daniels is a graduate of the program who now works at Dogtopia as a K-9 coach.
"It helped me a lot to work with the dogs I work with now and it's a really good program," Daniels said.
The next class begins on July 13.
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