Welcome, newest Counselors!

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We'd like to welcome our two newest Choice Group team members!

Claire Adams - Hampton Roads Area

Evan Jang - Richmond Area
Location: Richmond, VA, USA

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A Brother and Sister Team Find Independence with Supported Employment

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Crystal and Steven MacArthur are the typical brother and sister: they enjoy watching football with their mom, attending their church, and spending time with their family, dog, and friends.  Despite some sibling eye-rolling, they look out for each other.  They also enjoy working.  When looking for part-time positions, they wanted an employer where they could stay long-term.  Crystal became a dishwasher for a staffing company at a Virginia university.  She initially worked in the Annex, a smaller cafeteria off campus.  She hand-washed dishes and eventually learned to use the automatic machine.  Because Crystal has a visual impairment, Crystal’s co-workers always looked out for her, letting her know when the floor was wet or if there were crates that might get in her way.  She became part of the team, discussing sports games and weekend plans while keeping up with the breakfast and lunch rush....
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How The Choice Group Counseling Program Leads To Employment Success

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At The Choice Group, the goal of counseling is to provide a safe, accepting, and non-judgmental place where individuals can explore issues in confidence. Our goal is for the therapist and client to become a team that explores the client’s strengths, values, fears, and difficulties together. Many of our clients are on the autism spectrum. One such client had been told by a previous employer that he was never going to be able to hold a professional position. Before working with The Choice Group, this individual didn’t have a job coach and was terminated from many previous positions due to challenges with interacting with female coworkers. When The Choice Group manager Shadi Zadeh first met this client about six years ago, he was in his forties, held a Ph.D., and had been working off-and-on for years. By working with our counseling program, he has held down a position as an engineer making $42 an hour with the opportunity for consistent raises and the trust to work from home. Our client ...
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Experience and determination got Keaton the job he wanted!

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Keaton and his grandmother, Faye | Source  New River CC During the Fall of 2014, Keaton Hanks was a volunteer with a new and emerging consulting group in the Pulaski area of southwestern Virginia. Around that time, Keaton began working with his job coach at The Choice Group through Community Support Services. His objective was to gain employment as the consulting group's part-time administrative assistant by working on his customer service and administrative assistance skills with his coach, Caitlin Igor. Together they worked on phone etiquette, data entry, and in-person customer interaction skills while he was volunteering at the consulting agency. After several months of progress, Keaton was hired as the part-time administrative assistant at the consulting agency where he was volunteering! He and his job coach continued to work on reading and interpreting detailed instructions to complete data entry projects as well as advancing his already improved customer service skills. ...
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Improving Disability Inclusion in Your Workplace

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     In staying with the theme of October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month, from the U.S. Department of Labor Blog, here are some tips for employers to improve disability inclusion in the workplace: 5 Tips for Employers on Improving Disability Inclusion In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the recent White House Summit on Disability Employment explored how we can better include people with disabilities in the workplace. Here are five top takeaways from the summit for employers on improving disability inclusion: 1. Connect with local disability advocacy organizations Advocacy organizations across the country are available to provide assistance with training, recruiting and hiring individuals with disabilities. Let them know your business needs and goals and they can help improve your disability employment program. 2. Provide on-the-job training Apprenticeship programs, paid inte...
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