CLEVELAND — Nearly half of 25-year-olds with autism have never held a paying job, according to Autism Speaks.
But research shows that jobs that encourage independence can help reduce autism symptoms.
A program at the Cleveland Clinic is working to prepare students with autism for the workforce.
Five days a week, Jack Cummings is on the job.
“I need some help,” he said to his job coach.
The 15-year-old loves going to work at the Cleveland Clinic and his job coach is there every step of the way.
His main duties are to pick up and deliver mail and research materials to physicians throughout the Heart Institute.
“He’s been doing phenomenal. He loves it,” said Courtney Gebura.
She is the Lerner School for Autism’s transition coordinator.
He navigates the large main campus to make sure the right person gets the right mail. He also handles some office work.
“I think Jack really benefits from that routine and knowing that he’s doing something that means something to him and it’s beneficial to the department that he’s working for,” said Gebura.
He started the unpaid internship in September through the Vocational Training Program at the Lerner School for Autism.
“He has to communicate. He has to work on those soft skills of saying excuse me if he’s walking by somebody, navigating an elevator,” said Gebura. “He definitely has gained leaps and bounds and I know that his parents are really proud of his progress.”
Jack has been attending Lerner since he was a non-verbal four-year-old.
“When he came in, I know that he had some concerns with language impairments and also with feeding, behavior. So those are things that, you know, watching Jack progress throughout the years and as he’s becoming older and into that young adult,” said Gebura.
The training provides real-world job experience for students with autism.
There are about 20 students including Jack in the program right now working at nine different community-based job sites total, both on and off Cleveland Clinic’s campus.
“It’s more or less to give the students that authentic experience of what it means to be on a job, the responsibilities,” said Gebura.
Gebura said the program has expanded a lot since it started 16 years ago.
In some cases, business partners hire students after the internship.
“It’s so important for our students to be on the job and learning those skills so that they can retain them and then also either get a job post-graduation or generalize those skills to a different environment,” said Gebura.
It helps teens and young adults identify career goals and interests while developing their skills so they can be ready to join the workforce after graduation.
“To give them, again, that purpose and being able to have structure and somewhere where they feel belonged,” said Gebura.
Cleveland Clinic officials said after school, about 50% of young adults with autism do not work for pay and those who do tend to hold part-time low-wage positions.
Work experience has proven to consistently be the most important predictor of employment success after high school for students with disabilities and that’s what this program aims to provide, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
“It’s so important for the families to know their child’s abilities and know that they are capable,” she said.
