TeenWork overview
TeenWork is a truly innovative pilot project designed to change the life path of young people with special needs by helping them find and retain paid part-time employment. A TeenWork job coach works with participating teens and their families, as well as local businesses, to find and prepare each youth for a part-time job. The program manager or a job coach then works with the teens as each develops new skills and becomes comfortable in his or her workplace.
The concept for TeenWork originated with a group of community partners, informally called the Greater Victoria Teen Employment
Consortium - the members of which
provide disability support services in Greater Victoria and the surrounding
area.
CanAssist acted as the catalyst to bring this group together in mid-2008 and continues to play the role of facilitator and secretariat for all consortium activities. By the beginning of 2009, TeenWork was a very small "pre-pilot" project with a few teens participating. Today, about 12 young people participate at any given time, with older participants transitioning to adult employment supports as new teens join us.
To date, participants have worked in a variety of settings, including: Red Barn Market; Costa Verde Landscaping; Fountain Tire; the University of Victoria's Office of Research Services; Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence; Peninsula Co-op; and several others.
CanAssist is very grateful for the financial support it has
received from the Coast Capital Savings, Vancity and the Vancouver Foundation. We continue
to seek long-term funding from government and other sources to expand TeenWork so that program might serve as a model for replication throughout B.C. and,
potentially, across Canada.
CanAssist greatly appreciates their contribution:
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*Please note: TeenWork is a small-scale pilot project with limited participant capacity
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