Establishing Community Involvement Teammates Center

WRITTEN BY SARAH SMITH

Teammates Center LLC provides opportunities for clients with disabilities to work, socialize, and learn to be teammates with society by being active and productive participants. The organization’s niche is young adults aging out of high school, providing a continuing learning program with a communitybased focus.

Peggy Peters, a former special education teacher in the StowMonroe Falls School District, opened Teammates Center LLC on October 22, 2018. Since then, Teammates has grown and opened centers in Akron, Hudson, Fairlawn, and Portage County.

Although many of the individuals are young adults, Teammates Center has a wide variety of ages who attend and work at the center. Around 100 individuals currently attend Teammates in small groups with an abundance of staff in each group.

The center provides adult day services to improve independence. Each day has a specific focus. Monday is money and me/self advocacy. Tuesday is talking and technology skills. Wednesday has what’s happening and workout skills.

Cooking and safety skills are offered on Thursday. And Friday features funday activities which include trips to bowling alleys, putt putt courses, the zoo, pumpkin patches, art museums, swimming pools, and other activities chosen by the clients.

Vocational habilitation services are provided to better the job skills of the clients through volunteer opportunities, soft skills, and recorded data. The VOC-HAB program focuses on individuals who are close to getting jobs and helps improve their skill sets by volunteering at sites for an extended period of time to help improve work stamina. Teammates helps individuals focus on job skills by doing mock interviews and completing practice job applications to increase the chances of getting a job of their choice. In addition, Teammates keeps records of each individual to track the improvement in areas such as quality of work, stamina, and communication. Support is individualized to meet the need of the person served. The goal is to increase the independence of the people coming to Teammates so they can gain competitive employment.

Teammates Center helps individuals learn to C ommunicate, R ehearse, E ducate, and W ork while attending the C.R.E.W. program. After joining our C.R.E.W. program, each person will complete an assessment and become part of the JV, Varsity, College, or Professional team within the C.R.E.W. program.

The JV team works on multiple skills, with a one-year outline to move to the Teammates Varsity team. JV team members work on hygiene skills, learning about jobs, appropriate break times, and many other skills prior to graduating to the Varsity team. After graduating to the Varsity team, the client will complete a skill set with a specific outline. Some of these skills include deciding what type of job is of interest and building job stamina.

When on the College team, each client works on the skill set provided to move towards competitive employment, also known as a Teammates Professional team. Each client works on the College team for one to four years to achieve their goal of independence and obtaining a competitive employment job. While on the College team, clients fill out job applications, conduct mock and real job interviews, find job openings, and figure out schedules. After graduating from each of these teams, Teammates does not leave the individual to themselves until they are ready to be completely independent. Teammates Center continues to check-in and job coach when needed and helps each client stay employed at the job of their choice. More information about Teammates Center, the services offered, getting involved as a client or employee, and much more can be found at https/teammatescenter. org or by calling 234-571-5876.