Embracing Diversity
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE WITH AT-RISK YOUTH, DISABILITIES,
AND DIVERSITY

  • For 23 years, I have worked with many people with diverse disabilities, disorders, and disadvantages.
  • Beginning at Bethany Youth Homes, for seven and a half years, worked with boys who were:
  • fourteen to seventeen years old with emotional impairment and severe behavior disorders such as
    attachment disorder, conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and mental illness.
  • fourteen to seventeen years old sexual offenders.

  • Then at Grand Rapids Public Schools, for 20 years, I have been working with students who are:
  • sixteen to twenty-six years old with severe cognitive impairment.
  • four to sixteen years old with severe emotional impairment and mental illness.
  • eight to twenty-six years old with autism or aspergers syndrome (from very high to very low
    functionally and behaviorally).
  • charged with weapons or drugs possession in school and were in danger of permanent expulsion
    in an interim alternative assessment placement.

  • Facilitated career development in all of the secondary classrooms mentioned above. Some of those
    responsibilities included teaching prevocational skills in the classroom, developing and job coaching
    community-based sites, developing and monitoring job shadowing and work study sites, and job coaching
    at Kent Vocational Options and Cedar Springs Center (sheltered workshops) and D.E.C.C. Industries (a
    Hope Network Enclave).

  • As Employment Training Specialist at Union High School for 6 years, facilitated career development through
    hands-on experiences for tenth graders with learning disabilities, cognitive impairment, emotional
    impairment and physical impairment . Many of these youth are at-risk and/or juvenile offenders.

  • Worked on-call at Wedgwood Christian Services serving youth with emotional impairment , both as a Youth
    Treatment Specialist in the youth homes and as a captain on the Crises Response Team.

  • Served as the evening supervisor at Degage Ministries, a restaurant and coffeehouse serving Heartside
    residents. This is quite an eye opener to the lives of the homeless ; those disenfranchised and
    marginalized in society.

  • Through Degage, special education, and other personal relationships I have had many experiences with
    persons with mental illness; Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality in particular.

  • I have also had close friendships with people having Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, Dwarfism, Multiple
    Sclerosis, Paraplegia, and Quadriplegia.

  • From 2006 to 2008, I have been an independent consultant working with youth in poverty through Michigan
    Works and KISD in a WIA Youth Program in 7 high schools. In GRPS, 77% of youth were in poverty with a
    higher percentage in special education.