Partnerships and passion in community service Footprints Centre Partnerships and passion in community service

Partnership Since 2006 Penticton Indian Band and Neil Squire Society have partnered to provide services to people with disabilities. The employability program was created in partnership to extend services and meet community needs. Independent Living Vernon has also partnered. Various programs under contract have enabled services for; Elders and computer use, Elders with disabilities and leadership, employability for all persons with disabilities, Aboriginal employment, computer comfort, wage subsidy and technology at work. Online programs offer flexibility to be done anywhere. Penticton office services throughout the Okanagan Valley

Footprints to Employment Program Employability: (8 weeks group or Individual schedule) Career Development Personality skills, and vocational assessments Transferrable skills analysis Career research, educational research Job search skills, including resumes, cover letters and calling cards, mock job interviews Employment counselling, one-on-one and group based (small classes)

Footprints to Employment program Wellness for work: Life skills training Gift of self esteem Communication and teamwork skills Managing your physical health and disability Disability disclosure Referrals to other services Low barrier introduction to other services

Working Together Program This program gives eligible employers offering permanent work access to wage subsidy for individuals with a self-reported disability. Contract terms are based on needs of employee within the job. Mirjana and Roch, Maple Roch 2018

Youth SOWINS offers shelter and programs for women in crisis. “Thanks to the Working Together wage subsidy we have been able to start the process of going paperless by scanning all of our documents says SOWINS receptionist Veronica, who supervised the employees. “Without the wage subsidy, we wouldn’t have been able to hire someone to complete this task.” “We also feel very lucky to be able to give the opportunity to a person with disabilities to gain employment experience and help [them] prepare for future employment opportunities.” Through the Neil Squire Society’s Working Together program, Cody was connected to Maple Roch. Maple Roch operates as a social enterprise and is one of two licensed facilities in British Columbia to procure and sell maple syrup. Mirjana, an Office Coordinator at Maple Roch, had been a Neil Squire Society client and introduced her team to the Working Together program.

Community Participation

Technology at work The technology at work program is designed to support employment for people with disabilities who require assistive devices to overcome barriers in the workplace. This program helps those who are working perform activity in the workplace they would otherwise be unable to accomplish or have difficulty accomplishing a work related task.

Computer Comfort Participants can be provided with free one-on-one computer lessons through the Neil Squire Society’s Computer comfort Program. This provides participants further value by deepening life skills training and basic skills upgrading through including computer skills training. Available onsite or online. July 19, 2017 Gillian learns how to use her smartphone with Distance Computer Comfort Gillian, who works in a hospital in a small town in British Columbia, was born with low vision, and is now blind. She needed to learn how to use a smartphone and turned to the Neil Squire Society’s Distance Computer Comfort program.

Computer Comfort

Related Workshops Examples of events are: NEW - Up Skills for Work (people skills) Chronic Pain Management – Cancer Management Career fairs Tech Open house The Gift of Self Esteem FASD, Hepatitis Money Matters

Thank you! Call 250-492-5289 for more information.