Job Coach Position

Advocacy, Empowerment and Self-Determination

As a Job Coach it will be important for you to support people with disabilities to make their own choices and decisions. Often it seems easier to get the job done if you do it for someone.

Instead of doing this, Job Coaches need to teach people how to do the job on their own. Supporting people to learn about their abilities, to take control of their lives and to speak up and to speak out about their preferences and strengths is an essential part of the job.

Sometimes you might teach people with developmental disabilities ways that they can take greater control over their own lives and look out for their own self-interest. This is called “self-advocacy.”

Teaching people to advocate on their own behalf is important to the main goal of EBI, which is to help people with developmental disabilities be as independent as possible.

You will also be in situations where you will need to advocate on behalf of the people you support. This may be helping them express an opinion about how they want to live when others do not agree with them. It may be to help them buy something in a store when a salesperson is not responding adequately.

Over time you will learn the fine art of when to sit back and watch someone try to do something on their own and when to advocate on their behalf.

ADVOCATING FOR MORE RESPONSBILITY...

James has been working at the same grocery store for 7 years. He is a courtesy clerk, which includes bagging groceries, greeting customers and taking unwanted items back to their right location. He enjoys being a courtesy clerk but wants to do more.

James’s goal is to be a manager at the store.

When a cashier position opens up, he applies. His Job Coach, April, supports him in taking this next step towards a management position. April supports James by helping him prepare for the interview and rehearsing with him on what he will say.

James is prepared at the interview to talk about his strengths and what he has accomplished while being a courtesy clerk. James advocates for himself during the interview and is hired as a cashier. This position requires extensive training. April assists him in learning this new position by going through the training program and practicing at the register with him. She also works with him on creating strategies to be successful, such as how to memorize the produce codes.

Community Inclusion and Relationships