I have been keeping busy with all kinds of
different activities but my main focus has been to gradually progress toward
getting back to work.
I
was accepted into a re-employment program a year and a half ago and we
have been trying to find out what would be a good job for me now. I did
aptitude testing, I took a computer course through them and I have gone with my
job coach to interview a variety of people about what their jobs are really
like.
The
re-employment program is currently trying to find somewhere for me to volunteer
in order to get some real life experience and investigate what might be a good
field for me. They want me to volunteer or job shadow for about 12 to 15 hours
a week for a minimum of a month in order to prove that I could eventually
work part-time. It is possible that if I meet these requirements I might
qualify for some government education subsidies.
Last
October my case manager and I met with a Disability Counselor at our local
community college. We talked about the option of my entering a program at the
college and we had a good discussion about what kind of supports I could expect
from the college. I also told her the program that was most interesting to me
is a certificate program called Recreational Facilitator for Older Adults and
we discussed how employable I might be after completing the program.
They
have made recent changes and that Rec Facilitator program is no longer being
offered on a part time basis so the only way I can get the certificate will be
by going to college full time for 9 months starting next September. It
turned out that a couple of the classes I would need to take were offered in
other part time programs and the counselor suggested that I take one course and
see how it goes. If I do go on next year it would be transferred over and it would
make next year a little bit lighter. Everything looks very promising, but I
must admit that the thought of being a full time student is very daunting to
me.
I
am currently taking a course called Interpersonal Communication. The
class is from 6:00 to 10:00 one evening a week for 10 weeks. I have made it through 6
evenings, one mid term exam and two assignments.
I
am not sure where this will lead, but so far, so good!
