CLI Incorporated

P.O. Box 508

Norwalk, Ohio 44857

CLIsupports.com

419-706-5137

Week of April 29, 2024

Meet CLI's Tammy Jamison!

Tammy first started with HCBDD more than 23 years ago before transitioning over to work for the new privatized CLI in 2016. She says that her favorite part of the job is getting to know her clients and finding opportunities to help them.

Tammy says that she works a lot-- both for CLI & various side hustles she's got going on-- but she really enjoys spending time with her daughter, Keirra, and her family.

When asked what she'd be doing if she weren't working here, Tammy says that this is her "passion", saying that she will "likely continue to work in this field even after she retires from CLI." We're grateful to get the first 30 years!

John's usual--

We've completed our first month of CLI's new Transitional Youth Services and overall we're pretty happy with how everything went. Like anything else, it's a learning curve and we'll keep tweaking. Right now anyway people don't seem particularly interested in the weekday classes, but they are super interested in more Friday night and weekend fun stuff. We haven't given up on the afterschool stuff for good, but we'll focus on what people definitely want for now-- and probably revisit weekday afterschool services in the fall. We're expanding our weekday Transitional Youth offerings to include 1:1 community integrated experiences.

CLI is also beginning to offer Friday night & weekend activities for people with community jobs. We think that community employment is only sustainable if we support the whole person, not just their working life. Right now, there's a bit of a disincentive to find a day job because all the fun social activities with others are in the day programs, Monday-Friday, between 9am-3pm. We want to help improve that. It's always hard to roll out a new service, but I believe this is really needed. Get in touch with Haven Helmstetter if you're interested to learning more about what we've got planned.

We're starting to get excited about summer and warm weather activities! However, one housekeeping tip for anybody who has an employer, almost all jobs have dress codes. Before you break out your Daisy Dukes to go to work-- make sure that you know what your workplace allows. Firelands Local, like most employers, has a dress code that doesn't allow shorts above the knees, tanktops or sleeveless shirts and James Johnson has had to play Bad Cop quite a bit over the past 2 weeks on the warm days as people started stripping away layers. CLI staff is going to help by going over Firelands Local's handbook with people as part of our regular vocational curriculum so that everybody knows the rules.

That's all I have. Have a great week!

John

Carole Johnson volunteers her time every Tuesday afternoon to teach an arts & crafts class at the workshop. We figured that the least we could do is make her a proper uniform for for being CLI's Free Crafting Queen!

Incidentally-- these classes are open to anyone, so reach out to anyone at CLI and let us know if you'd like to learn more!

Thanks to the DODD ADS Quality Pilot Grant, CLI has a whole fresh new curriculum around technology and social media training-- including a lending library of 5G iPads that people enrolled in these classes can sign out and take home! Tell Haven in you want to learn more.

CLI hosted it's first Transitional Youth Bowling Party of 2024 at Kenilee Lanes last week on Friday, March 22nd. It was a good turnout and a fun time. CLI's next FREE

Transitional Youth Event will be on Friday, April 26th.

It's boatwrap season & time for some training on Firelands Local Recycling's new compactor truck!

This should be a big, big year for boatwrap collection as this new truck will dramatically increase productivity per driver hour.

Firelands Local LLC

James Johnson james@firelandslocal.com

419-921-6400

CLI's Good Works Cafe offers a

free community lunch every Friday afternoon

at the Norwalk Reservoir Clubhouse

With the generous support of OHGO, a noble food pantry based in Sandusky, we continue to provide free community meals every Friday.

Most weeks 50-90% of the food we prepare is donated by OHGO.  Thank you so much for partnering with us to provide community meals and skill building for our clients!

70+ meals served each week!

Question of the week



Q: I was told that CLI is offering fun activities Friday nights and on Saturdays. Is that true?

A: Yes! In April we kicked off our new Transitional Youth Services. In this program we offer after school classes and Friday/weekend trips. There has been a lot more interest in the fun weekend stuff than the classes so far. We'll keep offering the after school stuff, but we'll be expanding the weekend activities and tweak our curriculum to capitalize on teaching moments in natural community settings. The Transitional Youth programs only go up to age 23 (in 3 different age bracketed cohorts).

We've expanded to offer similar Friday night & weekend services to adults who are community employed. We're all about helping people make the money, but we know that there is much more to life than just work! People who choose a community job instead of a day program need to have social opportunities where they can spend their money and maintain friendships.

Video(s) of the Week: