September 2022

IPS NEWSLETTER

Are you interested in supporting IPS but would like your donation to directly help our students? Check out our Amazon Wishlist, which includes items our students and staff will use next month. Thank you for your support!

A Time for Career Exploration

I firmly believe that there is a path for everyone in this community to contribute to the workforce and earn a fair wage based on the work they perform. But first, we must provide opportunities for career exploration so that young people can find the career that fits them!

As a child, I played a board game called the Game of Life. The premise of this game is for players to make their own choices as they maneuver through adult life. It was a teaching moment for me — I learned how to make an informed decision. And it was my earliest memory of career exploration.

Career exploration is no different for the differently-abled. During this process, individuals investigate the following:

• Personal strengths and areas for growth
• Educational requirements
• Opportunity to imagine themselves participating in the workforce

Believing in yourself is the first step to finding your pathway to a career. Here at IPS, we presume competence in our students. During our pilot program, which kicks off on October 3, we will give our students a realistic job preview into the world of carpentry so they can imagine themselves working and feeling a sense of belonging. 

The IPS curriculum focuses on the following areas that will enable our students to strengthen their hard skills necessary to work in the trades:

1. Self-advocacy 
2. Flexible decision-making 
3. A sense of belonging in the workplace and the value of team building
4. Social and communication strategies tailored for the trades
5. On-the-job training through explicit instruction

Our pilot program will give our students the ability to evaluate career paths while strengthening their soft skills and introducing them to workplace competencies. We are so excited to offer this pilot program to our community. As a parent of a differently-abled child, I have seen that more career and vocational training options are needed for our children. Our mission at IPS is to provide additional services so they can train for new career paths and make informed decisions about their future. We can't wait to get started!

--Hope Hohmann

Cofounder/CAO

Welcome to Arlene Lechner!

IPS is thrilled to announce that Arlene Lechner has joined the team of our pilot program staff as our Behavior Specialist. 

Arlene brings over 20 years of experience as an educator and service provider for differently-abled children and adults. She is the co-founder and teacher at EASE-Empowerment, Advocacy & Sex Education (EASE), which offers online classes about relationships and sex education for teens and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). Most recently, she also served as the Inclusion & Disability Services Program Coordinator at the Pozez JCC of Northern Virginia coordinating social skills classes, adaptive sports, and was the Assistant Director of Camp Kesher, a camp for teens and adults with I/DD.

Throughout her career, Arlene has supported parents of differently-abled people, trained staff to work with and support individuals and led social skills classes for people of all ages. "I am excited to work at IPS and help our students gain new skills and explore the trade of carpentry," said Arlene. 

Arlene will draw upon her years of working as a teacher at Fairfax County Public Schools as well as creating and implementing behavior plans in multiple environments for her work at IPS. For her students, she focuses on what they can do to ensure that they are successful and utilizes individualized accommodations that accentuate their strengths.

“We are so grateful to bring on Arlene to our team who brings invaluable expertise of teaching and knowledge of our students’ abilities to IPS,” said IPS CEO Naina Narayana Chernoff. “Our students will truly benefit from her well-rounded approach to education and behavioral support.” IPS is so grateful Arlene is a member of our team!