Partner Success Story: Educational Pathway to Employment Program
May 5, 2020
In 2019, the Educational Pathway to Employment Program, a partnership between Christian Horizons and Humber College, was awarded one of the Ontario Brain Institute’s (OBI) Growing Expertise in Evaluation and Knowledge Transition (GEEK) initiative grants.
The Educational Pathway to Employment program is a post-secondary nine-month culinary certificate program for people with disabilities. The hands-on specific training offered through the program allows those with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities to successfully access an education that can lead to employment, support improved health and well-being and not feel excluded from society.
The program advances the message that access to education is a fundamental human right, seeking to break down barriers to post-secondary education and increasing career specific educational pathways for students with disabilities that lead directly to employment outcomes.
In being named a “2019 OBI-GEEK”, the program received $80,000 in funding to be provided over a 2-year period.
The funding from OBI-GEEK has allowed Christian Horizons to develop resources and tools in order to better evaluate the results delivered through the employment program – including employment and job retention.
After graduating with the Basic Culinary Skills certificate from Humber College, Michelle Tarco worked with an employment coordinator from Christian Horizons to help her create a dynamic photo resume that would allow her to stand-out when applying for jobs in the market. When Michelle received an interview request for a position in the food industry, she was more than ready.