The Success Center at The Counseling Center
“People in recovery, especially early recovery, have so many barriers preventing them from gaining traction with employment and other career & education goals. We, as an agency, understand those barriers, and wanted to formally design a program that addressed those needs for our clients. We want our clients to feel they are understood, and not judged. Our goal is to help pave a pathway back into the community for individuals in recovery. From a community standpoint, we are in need of a stronger workforce. People in recovery getting back into the workforce, fulfills a piece of this need in our region.”
–Andy Albrecht, CEO, The Counseling Center
Our WHY
A year ago, The Counseling Center had a goal to focus more intensely on tying clients to employment opportunities, by furthering the relationships with Community Partners and expanding the Vocational Training opportunities.
This task was not as difficult as it once was-the stigma on individuals in recovery is changing and improving all the time. Many people have helped pave this path to change the thought process and improve the employment opportunities for people in recovery. What we found is there are many local employers ready and in need of employable individuals! Great news! The next piece of this puzzle was to instill, in our clients, the knowledge and abilities to perform daily job duties with confidence, excellence, and pride. A large number of people were not raised in environments where these ideas are taught or experienced during their upbringing.
Thus, came the Success Center.
Skill Building
In the Success Center we chose three focused areas; Job Readiness, Financial Education & Life Skills Development.
We hold classes daily to educate clients on subjects such as:
-Resume Building
-Mock Interviews
-Communication in the Workplace
-How to Dress on the Job
-Workplace Etiquette
-Banking
-Creating a Budget
-Managing Money
-Building Credit
-Debt Recovery
We take clients through real life scenarios that they may run into and help them develop the proper skills to thrive in these daily tasks.
Being a mother myself, I recognize the real life stressors of trying to balance motherhood along with working a full time job. Accompany work & parenthood with maintaining sobriety and mental health, it’s a fine balance to keep everything intact. We want clients and employees to know that it’s a continual process and personal development is an ongoing activity and growth/success is the reward.
Vocational Training
In conjunction with our Success Center curriculum, we pair with Vocational and Job Skills Training.
Across our agency, we have a diverse population of individuals seeking treatment and integrating themselves into recovery. We have different training tracks to accommodate the wide variety of clients with different interests and needs.
These courses include:
-Deckhand
-Intro to Electric
-Intro to Plumbing
-Equipment Operator
-Construction
-Auto Mechanic
-Environmental Services
In the coming months we will be implementing Clerical, Billing/Coding, Serve Safe & our revamped Clean Hire Program. Clean Hire is an internal training program where the training time can also double to reduce outstanding fines, if their court contact gives approval, and is a wonderful way to get your foot in the door with TCC. 😉
Employment
Once a client has completed our Success Center courses and/or a training program, we have over 25 Community Partners who are excited to welcome new employees onto their teams.
We have manufacturing companies like Superior Composites, Graf Bro’s, Graf Custom Hardwood & A&M Refractories. Multiple Food Service companies in our area provide job opportunities, and companies such as Big Sandy, MPW in Chillicothe, Doc Spartan, & PSKC CrossFit.
The Counseling Center is a major employer for clients once they reach the point of job searching, as well.
What’s Next?
Once a client has secured a job, the work isn’t over yet.
There is now the task of getting to and from work. If the individual doesn’t have a license or means to get there, we work with Judge Mowery’s office to help clients decipher the first step in receiving driving privileges. In addition to helping individuals navigate the driver’s license/privileges process, our advisors help with transportation and work with clients after they have their job to gain their license back, establish a bank account, and develop a plan to begin paying off past fines and debts.
We also continue to engage the individual in skills building, to provide support to people in their new work environment and to implement the tools that an individual needs to be self-supporting. In conjunction to our own classes, we have also worked with DESCO FCU to put clients through a Reality Fair to see what real life scenarios await and just how far your money can stretch.
Every department probably feels like they have the most rewarding department, and we truly feel this way as well. We can’t wait to see how this department will continue to grow over the next year and develop even more community improvement, we believe TCC Works!
I encourage you to follow us on Facebook and Instagram as we continue to share our thoughts and practices in the business of Mental Healthcare. If you or someone you love is in need of behavioral treatment of any kind–reach us at 740.354.6685 or 24/7 on the Crisis Hotline 740.354.1010.
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