Van Buren Job Opportunities

Van Buren Job Opportunites has qualified staff who are certified employment specialists and employment consultant specialists. Our community-based employment model focuses on people with disabilities in Henry, Jefferson, Lee, Van Buren, and Wapello Counties and the business community.

Scope of Our Service

The frequency of our services depends on the individual support needs of our clients, which may be from one hour a month to 36 hours a month.

Transition Services

Our school-to-work transition process ensures that a student with disabilities' career readiness begins early. The essential outcome is to develop a student's ability to be able to work in the community. The transition process promotes a natural progression for the student becoming employed after high school or ideally the student obtaining a job before graduation.

This is accomplished through:

• Soft skills training
• Developing a plan for employment
• Paid work experiences
• Job shadows
• Worksite tours
• Establishing a process that provides needs support to obtain and maintain employment post-secondary.

Job Enhancement

Through this service, our staff teaches clients:

• Job seeking skills
• Career counseling
• Customer service training
• Retail occupational training

Employment Assessment/Planning

Assessment/planning includes:

• Discovery
• Career exploration
• Job shadows
• Enhanced planning
• Work site evaluations

Employment planning helps identify and assess each individual’s interests, strengths, career goals and support needs in order to develop, obtain and maintain employment in the community of their choice.

Discovery gathers information from the client and his/her support team to determine the client’s interests, skills, and preferences related to potential employment that guide in the development of a customized job. Discovery observes a client in his/her environment to help a client understand their contributions, conditions, and interests.

All assessment tools, such as a job shadow and/or a work site evaluation, may be utilized to help a client identify and determine vocational goals, vocational strengths, job families, off-site support needs and on-the-job support strategies needed to achieve meaningful career/employment outcomes.

Supported Employment

A personnel service that matches qualified people to the manpower needs of large and small businesses. VBJO’s supported employment services include:

• Job development
• Customized employment strategies
• Matching applicants' work skills to the qualification of a job
• Job coaching/training
• Ongoing support/follow-along services

Supported Employment services are offered seven days a week, whenever a client works.

Growth

VBJO is funded in part by Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation Services (IVRS), Medicaid Waiver Services, County, State, or Federal grant agreements. IVRS and Case Management are our largest referral sources.

A quality indicator for a successful employment agency is their job retention rate. In 2013, 100% of VBJO’s clients stayed in their job longer than six months. This is a phenomenal accomplishment for VBJO!

In 2012, VBJO was honored to be chosen as one of six employment services in the state of Iowa to pilot a new Employment First Initiative. We six were given the opportunity to implement customized employment strategies/best practices that lead to successful, quality employment for people with disabilities. As a result, in 2013, VBJO successfully placed four times as many clients in jobs in the community as in the previous three years!

In 2014, VBJO extended the Employment First Initiative into the high school setting to establish a transition process for students with disabilities that ensures school work experiences, connections to needed adult support services and obtaining employment before graduating from high school.