employment support

At Progress Industries, Work is for Everyone.

Posted on by Grace Riegel

For many of us, starting a new job may come with feelings of excitement “I can’t wait to get started learning new skills and meeting new people!” coupled with feelings of apprehension “What if I don’t learn quickly enough or what if my new coworkers don’t like me?” And if you are a person living with a disability, you might be feeling some of those same emotions on a much more extreme level. In 2021, the employment rate for individuals with a disability was 19.1% compared to 63.7% for non-disabled persons. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021).

At Progress Industries, we work to reduce the feelings of apprehension and over time we see our employees are excited to work! Progress Industries’ highly trained and experienced staff understand the unique challenges of working in a manufacturing setting while living with a behavioral health diagnosis, a hearing impairment, or physical limitation and offer individualized support to reduce or remove the impact of those challenges. We accomplish this by providing accommodations not yet provided in many other employment settings. Many of our employees come to Progress Industries because they have struggled to obtain or maintain employment in the community. Progress Industries serves as a perfect transitional step toward improving outcomes in areas such as self-direction, communication, or building work-skills and tolerance.

We do this by adapting the workplace to the person, rather than trying to make the person fit our workplace. In a practical sense, this may include us offering written instructions to someone who struggles with following verbal directions or color-coding job steps with attached pictures for someone who processes written information differently. For others, the accommodations are as simple as modifying job tasks and work schedules to fit the unique needs and abilities of the employee. For nearly all employees, the accommodations offered at Progress Industries are easily transferable with the help of our professionals in collaboration with our employees’ new workplace. Our employment specialists and job coaches are familiar with many of the accommodations available through the Americans with Disabilities Act and serve as advocates on the employee’s behalf when necessary.

Ultimately, Progress Industries is intended to be a transitional employment setting for individuals with barriers to their community employment goals. Progress Industries couples the ‘hard-skills’ of assembly, quality control and inspection, machine operation, and packaging with the ‘soft-skills’ of teamwork, following instructions, problem solving, and working at a steady or sustained pace and does so by serving the industrial community of Mansfield and Richland County with quality manufacturing solutions.

Progress Industries is incredibly proud of its dedicated and highly capable workforce. We have seen individuals grow far beyond their wildest dreams and we aim to continue to show our employees how much they are capable of. With our help, our employees look forward to coming to work each day and see each workday as a new opportunity and not a challenge. At Progress Industries, work is for everyone.

Watch this success story to learn more about Progress Industries and the impact made in employee’s lives.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021, February 24). PERSONS WITH A DISABILITY: LABOR FORCE CHARACTERISTICS — 2021. Retrieved from Bureau of Labor Statistics: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/disabl.pdf

Mitch Jacobsen has been with the agency for over seven years and serves as the Director of Vocational Services. Previously, he has worked with the agency as an employment specialist and production supervisor in the Progress Industries manufacturing workshop. Mitch is responsible for the management of workforce development programming and oversight of the industrial workshop and embroidery and print shop. Mitch serves as the agency’s representative to the Area 10 Workforce Development Board and Regional Manufacturing Coalition and has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from The Ohio State University.  Mitch is a Catalyst for Progress.

Progress Industries Annual Business Appreciation Breakfast

Posted on by Melissa Drozda

Catalyst Life Services is giving thanks to its business partners who employ participants of the CCMEP (Comprehensive Case Management Employment Program) and Success Unlimited programs. The businesses contracting with these programs were recognized at Catalyst’s annual Business Appreciation Breakfast on Wednesday September 25 in the lower level of Catalyst’s Rehab Center.

Across its various programs and partnerships, Catalyst serves approximately 300 youth and adult participants in as many as 80 paid work sites at any given time, with peak numbers seen in the summer while school is not in session.

These programs assist individuals with barriers to their employment and educational goals to gain experience in their desired employment sector. These individuals start at out at entry-level positions and receive on the job training and mentorship from their worksite supervisors and support from their employment specialists to ensure long-term participant success.

Program Director, Mitch Jacobsen, stated, “This breakfast serves a dual purpose for these programs, as we have the opportunity to give thanks to our business partners and further spread the message of our successes from the participant perspective.”

One such success is Coryanna Fraley, a self-described single mother who arrived in need of assistance and who has leveraged that into her status as a full time college student and part-time employee at Parent Aide through this program.

“Coryanna is what this program is all about” said Jacobsen, “She embodies what we would like to see from all of our participants and we couldn’t be more proud of her accomplishments.”

While the program has nearly doubled in size from the previous year, Catalyst is excited for what’s to come over the next year, and looks forward to the opportunity to engage even more businesses in the future.

For more coverage on this event, please visit: https://www.wmfd.com/news/single.asp?story=79927&fbclid=IwAR3a6UzicFtBudaM5aZk9KKmGYLf1Wz5IJRcAV5W1cSP1MsnxnCGiRGrvVU

For more information about these programs and how to partner, visit www.catalystlifeservices.org/vocational-services/

From “Help Wanted” to Hired!

Posted on by Chelsea Porter

vocation progress industriesIt’s that time of year again!

The weather turns colder, the leaves begin changing colors, and “Help Wanted” signs are posted in every retailer’s window.

In many cases, seasonal positions are a great option for individuals seeking part-time employment. What might you want to review before coming to the decision to apply for such a position? How might you improve your chances of successfully obtaining such a position? Remember these simple tips in order to make your job search more successful.

To determine whether an open position might be a good fit for you, start by thinking about what skills someone might utilize in such a position. Consider how the business or employer might frame those into a position posting online. Then begin asking yourself questions relating back to the requirements of the position, for example:

  1. Am I someone who enjoys working with other people and interacting with customers?
  2. Do I have a flexible schedule and am willing to work evenings and weekends?
  3. Am I someone who thrives in a fast-paced environment?

By understanding yourself and your intent in your job search, you can ensure higher levels of success as you progress through the job seeking process. It is important that you first assess the position or industry as a fit for you as a prospective job seeker. There are number of online assessments that can guide you through this process as well. Assess your preferences and attitudes to find a position that fits your needs.

 

Equally important to understanding yourself, it is critical to ensure that you envision the hiring manager’s perspective when applying for these positions. By doing this, you can oftentimes predict possible interview questions in advance. If a “Help Wanted” advertisement requests someone who works well independently, the interviewer might say something like:

                “Tell me about a time when you were able to succeed with little guidance or direction.”

This is what is known as a “situational” or “behavioral” interview question. The interviewer is expecting an example demonstrating your ability to process through a difficult task. Here is one tip to prepare yourself to answer such a question; just remember the STAR method:

  1. Situation – What took place that led to the problem at hand?
  2. Task – What were you assigned to do or what was your role in the problem?
  3. Action – What did you do to fix the problem?
  4. Result – How was this situation resolved?

In preparing for your next interview, try to come up with a few specific examples for situational interview questions that exemplify a few of your “transferable skills” which are skills you take with you from one position to another (sometimes in an entirely different industry). Some of these skills might include:

  • Communication
  • Teamwork
  • Time Management
  • Computer Literacy
  • Critical Thinking
  • And many others

Finally, as you review these tips before you start the job seeking process, remember that we have only touched on the surface of some of these topics. You can take your job search to the next level by expanding on the advice given above.

For more information about job seeking skills or how best to prepare for what comes after the interview, stay posted to this blog and follow us on social media, where there will be more helpful hints to come.

Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Blog Written by: Mitch Jacobsen is the Director of Vocational Services at Catalyst Life Services, and he has worked with individuals with barriers to their employment and educational goals. He oversees a number of vocational programs and services designed to improve employment outcomes. Mitch is passionate about the vocational department at Catalyst Life Services, which helped put over 500 people to work in calendar year 2017.