Prevocational Services and Life Skills

Lifeworks' Prevocational Services and Life Skills are geared toward individuals with significant symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder who have completed their schooling but are not currently candidates for competitive work or postsecondary education. Most often funded as “Adult Day Support” or “Vocational Habilitation” by way of Ohio Medicaid Waivers, Lifeworks Prevocational and Life Skills programs offer structured settings in which service recipients can hone and develop social skills, communication skills, prevocational skills, functional skills of daily living, and recreation & leisure skills. As a part of standard programming, participants are afforded regular opportunities to travel into the community in service of generalizing skills, participating in volunteer and simulated work experiences, and leading integrated and fulfilled lives.

Program Features

Attendees of Lifeworks Prevocational and Life Skills programs receive ongoing, individualized assessments to validate that service goals are right-sized and achieved, and that supports are appropriately calibrated. Lifeworks utilizes empirically-supported tools to ensure our approach to an individual’s programming is meaningful, self-directed, and tied to tangible outcomes.  

Our current assessment battery includes the use of community preference assessments, vocational preference assessments, The Assessment of Functional Living Skills (AFLS), Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA), and Standardized Outcomes Assessments.

Lifeworks Prevocational and Life Skills Programs provide service recipients structured blocks of time, within their standard daily schedules, to hone and develop work skills.  In many instances, these skills do not lend themselves, directly, to a specific type of job. Instead, the focus may be on time management, critical thinking, communication, safety, sequencing, independence, or some other relevant skill.  The aim is to help individuals continue to build skills sufficient to pursue higher-order vocational goals, in their chosen fields of work, somewhere down the line.    

Lifeworks Prevocational and Life Skills Programs provide service recipients structured blocks of time, within their standard daily schedules, to hone and develop functional daily living skills.  Beyond the world of work, many individuals with severe symptoms of ASD require continued training and support into their adult years, in order to achieve greater independence in the management of their own self-care, money, hygiene, meal preparation, household chores, and consumer skills, to name just a few realms.  For many, the skills necessary to achieve a high quality of life outside of work are every bit as important, if not more so, than those endemic to vocation. 

Lifeworks Prevocational and Life Skills Programs provide service recipients structured blocks of time, within their standard daily schedules, to hone and develop adaptive communication and social skills. One cannot be said to be on the autism spectrum without pronounced deficits in the realms of social and/ or communicative skills. At Lifeworks, these deficits are understood to undergird most challenges our service recipients face relationally, at work, in their communities, and at home, thus warranting consistent clinical attention.    

Lifeworks Prevocational and Life Skills Programs aspire to maximize community integration for all participants. As a part of standard programming, attendees are afforded opportunities to travel into the community in accordance with their preferences, needs for support and supervision, and work-readiness. 

All Lifeworks Prevocational and Life Skills Programsrecipients receive high-fidelity case management to ensure that communication and collaboration between all stakeholders is strong. A piece of information that fails to get passed along, or a purposeful change in one environment that is not accounted for in another, can make all the difference in the world for an individual on the spectrum. 

Lifeworks Prevocational and Life Skills Programs also provide focused Therapeutic Behavior Support services to some qualifying individuals and families who are in need of dedicated assistance navigating co-occurring mental health disorders.  

Additional Information

Prevocational Services and Life Skills at Lifeworks are provided by Bachelor’s and Master’s level professionals. All clinical oversight and coordination are performed by licensed and certified staff members in accordance with best-practice standards and state regulations.

Services are currently available at two locations: 3205 Fairmount Blvd., Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and 2525 E. 22nd St., Cleveland, Ohio. Normal hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m., though staff members are in the building before and after those hours and frequently available by phone. 

If you are seeking Lifeworks Prevocational and Life Skills Services and have questions that extend beyond the information offered on this page, please visit the Contact Us page, complete the required fields, and someone will get back to you as soon as possible. Otherwise, contact our Intake Department at 216-320-8623.

 

For more information, please contact us.