Bridging The Gaps: Training & Placement Program

          Goodwill Industries of Ashtabula, Inc. is working with The National Retail Federation Foundation (NRFF) and The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRA) in cooperation with Area Industries, The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), Ashtabula County Health Department (ACHD), Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD), The Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR), and local employers; to developed professional training programs designed to move persons with disabilities and other challenges toward self-sufficient living.

          The “Bridging the Gaps” Training and Placement Program is designed to prepare individuals with disabilities and other challenges to fill on-going employment needs in Ohio and Pennsylvania. “Gaps” in the employment industry are where vacancies are high according to the ODJFS and the Bureau of Labor Market Information; where applicants may secure employment to earn a living wage with advancement potential. “Bridging the Gaps” is not only designed to fill the areas of need in the workforce, but also to provide a connection or a “bridge” that facilitates attitudinal and behavioral changes within the consumer. This is achieved through a process of “habilitation” rather than “rehabilitation” (Sims, 1989). That being said, “Bridging the Gaps” recognizes different approaches to learning transmission, acquisition, accretion, and emergence, and emphasizes that change itself is influenced by biological, psychological, sociological and spiritual variables. The capacity that each individual brings to the learning/change process is affected by these variables. At the same time, these models recognize that although the participant is ultimately responsible for change and learning, that responsibility is shared with the trainer through the development of a therapeutic training environment. Over the past fifteen years, considerable research has focused on ways to better motivate participants with various challenges. A series of motivational approaches has been developed to elicit and enhance motivation to learn and change. They seek to shift control away from the trainer and back to the participant empowering them. They emphasize treating participants as valuable productive individuals. They also recognize that gaining the mastery over ingrained challenges may be a cyclical rather than a linear process; and in addition that recurrence of issues does not necessarily indicate failure (SAMHSA, 2013).

          “Bridging the Gaps” affords each participant the opportunity to achieve a nationally recognized certification from either the NRFF in: Customer Service, Advanced Customer Service, Retail and/or Retail Management or a nationally recognized certification from the NRA as a: ServSafe, Safe Food Handler or Food Protection Manager.