Taking you back a few years, during my time as an undergrad here at VCU I took a marketing communications course. Our main project that semester was to pitch a program plan to local businesses around Richmond. One of the clients was Positive Vibe Cafe, a non-profit organization training and employing people with physical and developmental disabilities in food services. Needless to say, when I saw this assignment I immediately thought of Positive Vibe.
To maintain confidentiality, I will call my interviewee Ms. Cafe. She is the training program director for Positive Vibe Cafe and was kind enough to answer some of my questions:
1. What special considerations must you address when planning programs for your adult learners at Positive Vibe?
Since Positive Vibe works with individuals with disabilities, differentiation is vital when planning programs and training sessions for their adult learners. Each class session lasts four weeks with three weeks between each session. This period of time allows for interviewing candidates, scheduling volunteers and chefs, and adjusting the curriculum. Ms. Cafe stated that knowing each individuals reading ability, social level or any physical handicaps allows them to adjust lessons as needed. However, the classes are not grouped by disability or level of independence, so that has to be taken into consideration when planning lessons. They may have a class consisting of students in the autistic specturm, Down syndrome, Bi-polar, ADHD or emotionally disturbed. This means that the material must be presented and repeated in multiple learning models to ensure that each student receives and comprehends the information.
2. What are the greatest limitations and/or constraints you face when planning your program and training sessions at Positive Vibe? How do you deal with these issues?
Ms. Cafe strongly emphasized the word, scheduling. She said that at Positive Vibe they rely on multiple volunteers, staff and chefs to assist with instruction and student internships. This means she is correlating up to 20 different schedules, wow! She has found that preparation is the most important step to overcome this issue, as well as some flexibility. Before the training sessions, she sends out the dates for all possible internships to volunteers and requests that they let her know what days they are available. From here, she schedules the students’ internships (3 each consisting of both lunch and dinner). To ensure that she avoids a conflict with any particular student, Ms. Cafe asks for any schedule conflicts that they may have with interships during their interview. This helps to cut back on chances that the student may not make their scheduled internship. Once everything is finally in place, Ms. Cafe will send out weekly reminders to her students and intership supervisors to let them know who is schedules and on what day and time. This also helps to reduce the chances that a volunteer forgets or possibly double books themselves. She again emphasized that this takes time, but any conflicts are detected earlier and can hopefully be fixed before the day of the internship. She similarly does the same steps for both chefs and volunteers during class. Once she knows what days she has assistance during class, certain lessons that require more than one instructor are scheduled. Ms. Cafe said it’s important to maintain a good working relationship with the kitchen and its staff at the restaurant. “I never schedule cooking days on Tuesday though, when the restaurant opens for the week!”
3. Where do/did your idea for these programs and training internships come from? Are they dictated by administration/requested by learners/or are they needs you recognize that need to be addressed?
The training program was initially started due to Garth Lacen’s experience with his own son, Max, who suffers from Muscular Dystrophy. The mission of the program is to help those with disabilities find gainful employment within the community. Ms. Cafe stated that currently, individuals with disabilities suffer an astounding 70% unemployment rate. “By supplying individuals with the skills and experience we are giving them the opportunity to provide for themselves. Additionally, any individual with a disability who finds employment adds to public awareness and acceptance.”
4. What are some of the challenges you have faced in Positive Vibe’s programs or training and how have you overcome them?
Ms. Cafe again emphasized that the most common challenges are scheduling and differentiation of material. “Since one cannot anticipate exactly what obstacles or conflicts may occur, it helps to be overly prepared and flexible.” Occasionally volunteers will not be able to commit to their internship and advanced reminders usually remind them to let Ms. Cafe know so she can find a sub. She said she also over schedules her internship supervisors. Even if she doesn’t have a student scheduled for an hour they volunteered, she keeps record of what day it was just in case she has to reschedule a student or adds a student right before class begins. For the actual classes, Ms. Cafe said she comes prepared with multiple teaching methods and activities. If one doesn’t work, she will try another approach.
5. In your experience, what has been the most effective program/training session planned? What makes it or made it successful?
Given the amount of planning that is required to differentiate lessons for Positive Vibe learners, the more background information she has about each student the more successful the class. Knowing the abilities and limitations allows her to plan certain accomodations for each lesson. She stated that it’s just like any other classroom, there have to be clear expectations and goals. Since they have instituted a policy of “professionalism” to the sessions, she has seen better attention and attitudes during classes. They don’t have any behavioral systems in place, but discipline is key in learning and retention. “I explain that they are expected to act like professionals and if they cannot, they will be “fired” from the program. If a trainee’s conduct is called into question, Ms. Cafe will ask them to reflect on their behavior and answer the question, “was that professional?” Positive Vibe’s concept of professionalism in their training program serves the dual purpose of educating the students on social expectations. Given some of their students’ disabilities, social integration is also an important factor in the training program and is something they can take with them to any workplace. Finally, Ms. Cafe stated, “I personally feel that no matter the student’s age or subject matter, clear expecatations and outcomes must be given so that both parties are invested in goals, and motivated to accomplish them.”
What I found most insightful and important in this interview is that it doesn’t matter who the participants and audience are, when planning programs and training sessions the same criteria has to be followed. Positive Vibe has developed this special program that gives opportunities to adults with disabilities, and these adults may not have ever had the chance otherwise to get out into the work world. I am not aware of other training programs for adults with disabilities like Positive Vibe and was shocked when I heard that these individuals suffer 70% unemployment rate. Communication, flexibility, scheduling and also being professional are key and are stressed in this program, similiarly to other programs and models we’ve discussed. Overall, this interview was very enlightening and helped me pull together concepts and themes we’ve talked about this semester.
