The Institute for Career Development (ICD) has started a partnership with the High School for Youth and Community Development at Erasmus Hall to help youth with disabilities transition from school to career. The latest addition to the partnership adds a third school to a pioneering initiative that aims to grow to citywide.
“We are excited to help pioneer this evolving citywide initiative,” said Marie Prendergast, principal of the High School for Youth and Community Development at Erasmus Hall, in a press release.
“We are pleased that our students will start to see the benefits in the Fall. They will receive long-term, holistic support through their high school years and beyond that we expect will result in greater self-determination, better economic mobility, and improved overall well-being.”
Students with disabilities leave public high schools every year only to find themselves faced with a gap where the services they depended upon to finish school had previously been. This new initiative, created by ICD, is designed to bridge this gap by providing services that will enhance college and career opportunities for youth with disabilities.
Through this initiative, ICD staff members serve as navigators for individual students to help them as they work toward building the skills needed to launch fulfilling careers. Most recently the initiative has focused on vocational evaluation, career planning, and job training and placement primarily for adults with disabilities.
“This new initiative will help students with disabilities to better understand how to advocate for themselves and successfully navigate their way through the complex systems of services and supports available to them after they leave school,” said Joseph T. McDonald, ICD President of Development and Communications. “It offers enormous potential to build the self-confidence, resilience, and agency that they will need to continue overcoming the biases and barriers to employment that they will face as adults.”
