Our Programs & Services
Situational
Assessment
Work
Adjustment
School-to-Work
Transition
Vocational
Rehabilitation
Community Transitional Services
Our Philosophy
Indianhead Enterprises serves adults and youth with various barriers to employment. These barriers include such things as limited or no work experience, limited or no work skills, and/or disabilities. There will be no categorical exclusion on the basis of need or disability, except where more appropriate services are available at other community agencies. Individual exclusion will be made when the enrollment of the person would clearly be detrimental to the client, staff or others. Indianhead Enterprises is committed to seeing that each person served has full access to the programs and services offered, and that his/her participation will not be restricted by architectural or other barriers. Our vocational programming believes and strives to provide a program based on the normalization principles. We believe our program must teach and train our clients to establish and/or maintain personal behaviors that are as “culturally normative as possible.” We believe that the process, or how we teach clients, is as important as what we teach. How we strive to accomplish this is by teaching skills that are functional; age appropriate; taught in natural environments; skills oriented toward the present and future in the community environment; individualized and adapted to the client’s needs; to provide opportunities for the clients to make choices; and to build our program around the clients’ interests and preferences to enable them to become positive, motivated citizens of our community.
- Respect the rights and dignity and emotional and physical well-being of each person in this program.
- Teach and train clients to develop their maximum potential of independence, knowledge, skills, and responsibility – not expect 100% perfection.
- Help clients achieve working and learning in the least restrictive environment (clients moving towards independence).
- Teach age appropriate skills to the client, using the community and real-life experience whenever possible.
- Teach skills that will be useful and functional in the client’s life.
- Teach skills that have a vocational outcome for specific purposes in the client’s life.
- Keep communications open with the significant people in the client’s life (family and residence) relating positive events even more than negative events.
- Teach the clients to be responsible for their actions and behavior.
- Individualized program plans for each client.
- Vocational programming is a realistic goal for every client.
- Each staff person will have an understanding of and the ability to train in the vocational program in addition to training in their specialty area.
- Each staff will be aware of each client’s entire IPP in order to coordinate areas of learning.
- Each staff is responsible for incorporating social skills and personal appearance skills into the programs of the clients they work with.
Situational Assessment
Situational assessment is an avenue of vocational evaluation. The evaluation process is taken one step further and the individual is assessed while being involved in the work environment. There are no tests or work samples. The individual is given various jobs to complete while his/her assets and limitations are noted. Situational assessment can be used in conjunction with a vocational evaluation or separately. Situational assessment is another method used to assist in answering some of the same questions mentioned above, with more of an emphasis on work skills, behaviors, interests, and abilities.
Work Adjustment Training
Work Adjustment Training (WAT) is designed to assist individuals in the development of vocational skills, work habits, physical tolerances, and work temperaments necessary to become vocationally successful. WAT is a treatment/training process utilizing individual and group work, or work related activities to assist individuals in reaching their optimum level of vocational development. The purpose of WAT is to assist the individual in preparing for a job in the community, at Indianhead Enterprises, or to enter another training program.
School-to-Work Transition
The School to Work Transition services provides students with an opportunity to develop skills and interests in preparation for entering the working class. The purpose of School to Work Transition is to provide students with training in various work settings in order to obtain appropriate work skills, behaviors, knowledge and understanding of the transition to work. There are three avenues of the School to Work Transition services designed to meet various needs of the individual students.
The Employment Skills Development program is designed to provide more intense supervision and training for students with disabilities.
Student Work Based Learning is designed for students ready to enter a competitive and integrated workplace in the community. Student Work Based Learning services provide read work to help students gain the knowledge and skills needed for real-life work activities and career opportunities.
The Skills to Pay the Bills program is group-based learning activity that covers soft skills required for workplace success. Many different skills are taught by using a variety of hands-on activities.
The Youth At Risk program is designed to assist students with special behavior problems or various economical/social barriers which put the students at risk of transitioning to work. These students are placed under close supervision.
The Work Experience program is designed to provide hands on work experience in a real work setting. Students are encouraged to participate in various work environments. The purpose of the Work Experience program is to allow students the time to develop appropriate work skills and determine areas of interest to pursue upon graduation.
Our Transition Services help young adults acquire all the necessary skills, knowledge, and experiences to ensure a successful transition into adult life. Our services are designed to help young adults discover answers to critical questions: Who am I? What am I good at? What do I like? What do I need? What are my challenges and resources? How do I get from here to there?
Transition Services is designed to assist individuals in the development of very basic pre-vocational/occupational skills. STW Soft Skills is a training process utilizing individual and group activities to assist individuals in reaching their optimum level of development.
Vocational Rehabilitation Services
The Vocational Rehabilitation Services provide a variety of programming to adults who may possess various barriers to employment. The purpose of the Vocational Rehabilitation Services is to provide short or long-term assistance and training in order to assist individuals toward optimum level of vocational development. In order to assist the vast array of individuals in our service delivery area, Indianhead Enterprises, Inc. provides five very flexible program areas designed to meet each person’s vocational needs.
The purpose of the WH program is to provide short-term therapeutic and productive work training in order to assist a variety of populations which may possess various barriers to employment. The WH program is design for individuals who had little to no work experience or who have not been employed within recent years. Services are provide to such populations as, but is not limited to, W2 job seekers, long-term unemployed, probation and parole individuals requiring work experience, etc. Individuals are provided with an opportunity to develop or modify their understanding of the meaning and demands of work, and to strengthen positive work-related behaviors. The programs offered are structured, goal directed programs utilizing both facility and community based work sites.
The purpose of the RTW program is to provide short-term therapeutic and productive work in order to assist individuals which may possess a work related injury and are placed on light duty restrictions. The RTW program is design for individuals who may not have light duty jobs available through their current employer. Services are provide to such individuals as a way to continue their employment while recovering from a work related injury. Individuals are kept on their employers payroll and are provided with light duty packaging and assembly type tasks at Indianhead Enterprises. Indianhead Enterprises provides an opportunity for individuals to remain employed with their current employer until they are ready to return to work. Should an individuals injuries inhibit them from returning to their place of employment, Indianhead Enterprises also offers Job Placement services to assist them in locating alternative employment in the community. The programs offered are structured and goal directed.
The purpose of SE is to assist persons with disabilities who require on-going support on the job which is not time limited, in order to choose, obtain, and retain paid employment in integrated settings. Supported Employment provides opportunities for individuals who are currently unable to sustain community employment without on-going training and support. The SE program ideally involves employers and work sites in which non-disabled individuals are employed. Although some individuals may periodically need to be served in the facility, the majority of the individuals working time is spent at a work site in the community as part of a work crew, enclave, or individual placement.
Job Preparation, Development and Placement Services are a set of services designed to assist individuals in their effort to plan, seek, obtain and maintain competitive integrated community employment.
Community Transitional Services
Customized Community Transitional Services provides various activities, from classroom settings and community outings to Strive and/or Conover on-line courses, to assist individuals in making informed decisions about community integrated employment by developing life skills, discovering interests, improving and exploring job skills and researching job opportunities. Individuals will participate in career and community exploration. These activities will occur in a variety of ways such as classroom environment learning, touring businesses, attending job fairs, and various other community activities.
We are currently providing three separate community transition units:
The purpose of this is to identify career interests, determine skills and abilities and explore career options. Career exploration is accomplished using customized online systems designed for individuals with disabilities, offering interest inventories and Learning Assessments and determining skills and abilities. Company Tours and Job Shadowing are also available to inform individuals of job opportunities and present them with opportunities to observe realistic work environments learning acceptable work behaviors, responsibilities and options.
The purpose of this is to provide Job Readiness, Job Seeking and Job Keeping skills. Customized online courses offer both group and individual self-passed instruction. Job Readiness focuses on such things as communications, attitude, teamwork, critical thinking and more. Job Seeking focuses on such things as job searches, resumes, interviewing skills, applications and more. Job Keeping focuses on such things as employer expectations, getting along with co-workers, workplace conduct and more.
The purpose of this is intended to help individuals identify, learn, and understand themselves. Customized online courses are offered in such areas as Self-Esteem, Goal Setting, Self-improvement, Self-control, Problem solving, Personal responsibility and so much more.
