UAS helped Jerry get a job at Pete’s Contemporary Market this yr. Jerry makes use of Lyft to get to and from work.
Younger adults with autism face many limitations to aggressive employment, however for West Aspect Chicago public highschool college students who get jobs by City Autism Options, entry to transportation isn’t certainly one of them because of a beneficiant reward from Lyft.
“The purpose of our LyftUp program is to extend entry to transportation for individuals who want it,” stated Lamar Brown, Group Strategist at Lyft. “We’re thrilled to companion with City Autism Options to take away transportation limitations for younger adults to get to work and help their important work throughout Chicago.”
City Autism Options works with younger adults from West Aspect Chicago public excessive faculties who’ve autism and different studying variations. These college students come to the UAS West Aspect Transition Academy from their faculties to take part in group immersion applications, obtain speech-language and occupational remedy, have interaction in social-emotional studying and develop communication and transferrable job abilities. Many of those college students, who vary in age from 18 to 22 years previous, haven’t but held a job. Not all of them will.
Based on analysis from the A. J. Drexel Autism Institute, younger adults with autism have the lowest price of employment in comparison with their friends with different disabilities, with solely 4 out of 10 working in aggressive employment of their 20s. Not each scholar who works with UAS is employment-ready. For these which can be, the UAS crew identifies employers who’re keen to rent younger adults with autism and associated challenges after which works with college students to assist them put together their resumes, submit an software. As soon as the coed is employed, UAS supplies on-the-job help.
Due to Lyft, college students can get entry to free rides to and from work, eliminating one of the widespread limitations to employment for this inhabitants.
“Each scholar we assist get employed is bucking a pernicious pattern of unemployment for younger adults with autism and different communication challenges,” says Heather M. Tarczan, govt director of City Autism Options. “However what actually breaks our hearts is when we have now a job-ready scholar an keen potential employer, however the scholar can’t work due to issues with taking public transportation. The beneficiant reward from Lyft has successfully eliminated that barrier, and allowed us to put extra college students into their very first jobs.”
Alejandro, 21, is without doubt one of the college students who makes use of Lyft to get backwards and forwards to work.
UAS helped Alejandro, a scholar on the Ray Graham Coaching Heart, safe a job at Walmart Neighborhood Market within the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago in January. He works bagging groceries and bringing in procuring carts.
At seven o’clock within the night on a Wednesday, Alejandro clocks out at his job and texts Tucker Kelly, a job coach at City Autism Options, to let him know he’s able to request a Lyft journey. With out Lyft, Alejandro must take two totally different buses to get dwelling from work, which supplies him pause. “Often, my household picks me up on the weekends, however I’m not snug taking the bus on my own after they can’t choose me up,” says Alejandro.
As soon as the automobile arrives and Alejandro will get in, he’ll be dwelling in about quarter-hour in comparison with as much as 45 minutes on public transportation. “I like feeling protected within the automobile,” says Alejandro. “Ready for the bus and generally on the bus, you don’t know what can occur and I generally have anxiousness.”
Many college students City Autism Options works with reside in high-crime neighborhoods, and a few dad and mom are involved in regards to the security of public transportation. Some dad and mom prohibit their son or daughter from working if they’ll’t drive them to and from work themselves, making employment all however not possible.
Tarczan says that with the ability to provide college students free rides by Lyft is a game-changer.
“We spend nearly all of our lives in maturity, and employment is a big a part of maturity for any particular person,” says Tarczan. “After we can get a scholar their first job and take away that transportation barrier whereas they’re transitioning to life as an grownup, that’s going to have a deep and lasting influence on that younger grownup for years to come back.”
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About Lyft
Lyft was based in 2012 and is without doubt one of the largest transportation networks in the US and Canada. Because the world shifts away from automobile possession to transportation-as-a-service, Lyft is on the forefront of this huge societal change. Its transportation community consists of the biggest shared mobility community in the US and brings collectively journey share, bikes, scooters, automobile leases and transit multi functional app. Lyft is singularly pushed by its mission: to enhance folks’s lives with the world’s finest transportation.
About City Autism Options
Since its institution in 2012, City Autism Options has served greater than 1,000 younger adults by revolutionary, person-centered applications that concentrate on the acquisition of life abilities, group integration, social interplay, and vocational coaching. Whether or not we’re serving West Aspect Chicago public highschool college students at our UAS West Aspect Transition Academy or at Rising Options Farm, or providing alternatives to the broader autism group for socialization by our Community 1212 social applications, UAS believes that each one younger adults residing with autism and different studying variations are valued members of society.
