Clients of the Peoria nonprofit organization EPIC have some advanced new tools to help them gain employment skills.
Participants, staff and other community leaders gathered for the career center’s grand opening Thursday afternoon at EPIC’s building on Townline Road.
“We’ve been providing employment services for quite some time at EPIC, for right around 45 years,” said Doris Hayes, senior vice president of education and career services. “But we have learned through our own conversations and our own data collection that there are many more opportunities for individuals with disabilities to be prepped for the workforce.”
Hayes said the new career center adds assistive computer technology, such as bright keyboards, specially designed mouses, and advanced software that enables users to direct the cursor by eye movement.
“Many people still don't have the technology they need in their home, so we have the technology here for them,” said Hayes. “Really, any level of ability or disability that you have, we're going to have the technology they need to prep for the workforce.”
EPIC, commonly stylized with an exclamation point, stands for “Empowering people. Inspiring capabilities.” The organization’s mission is to provide education, employment, residential, and behavioral health opportunities for the people they assist.
The new career center builds off services offered to individuals with cognitive differences through EPIC’s existing employment skills lab called PAES, “Practical Assessment Exploration System.” Hayes said the PAES program offers assessments in seven different career areas.
“If somebody comes in and says they have an interest in a marketing career, they can go into the PAES lab, they could do on-the-job training there,” she said. “Then they're going to get a personalized assessment that shows, ‘here's your strengths in that career path, and here are some opportunities.’”
The career center will allow job seekers to expand their employment options by working with trained staff providing support in several areas, such as career coaching, skills development, networking and job placement assistance, readiness workshops and interview advice.
The upgrades to EPIC’s employment were made possible by various community donations, assisted in part by the Indo-American Society of Peoria [IASP].
“We really are excited that this is coming to a fruition,” said IASP board member Faisal Hasan. “Something that comes to my mind is, there was a question: ‘How do you measure the character of a society?’ The answer that really resonated to me is — and I'm just going to paraphrase — you can measure the character of the society by seeing how are they treating their elders, and how are they treating their differently abled.”
Kim Cornwell, the CEO of EPIC, touted the career center as a great opportunity to advance the services the agency offers.
“All of us know that if you are in a job that you're passionate about, it's not work. You're also able to build relationships, and relationships are all about you having great well-being and emotional security and courage to be able then to expand on those opportunities,” said Cornwell.
“That's really what a career is for any of us, and that's something that we also want to make sure that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities not only have, but also are communicating that to our society in general.”
