Clubhouse Work-Oriented Day Program
Psychosocial and Vocational Rehabilitation
Program participants, called members, work alongside staff to operate the Clubhouse while building social, thinking and work skills necessary to regain self-sufficiency. Weekday program hours are 8 am to 3 pm with some evening and weekend activities. Members volunteer in one of three work units: Maintenance, Kitchen or Business. Each unit has distinct tasks. Members’ goals vary, however they are always incremental steps to increase independence.
Life Skills Training and Coaching
After a brain injury, many people need extra help with life’s daily responsibilities to stay safe and healthy while living alone or without continual assistance at home. Life Skills Training, followed by ongoing coaching, is provided by rehabilitation professionals and assists with understanding cognitive strengths and challenges of ‘higher level’ activities of daily living; developing and modifying systems to track and complete these responsibilities; emergency preparedness and healthy lifestyle choices; time management of multiple life activities; and modifying and maintaining systems including enlisting support of others as needed.
Family Support
The family support program offers individual, group and peer-to-peer resources and support to strengthen family relationships that have been strained and often broken after a tragic, life-changing injury of one family member. Program goals include healthier relationships, respite for caregivers, and managing health and wellness of both family caregivers and their disabled family members. Our family caregivers can participate in monthly support groups facilitated by Side by Side’s social work staff, connect with each other outside of Side by Side, receive individualized resource coaching and brain injury training, and most importantly, learn to prioritize their own care.
Employment Services
At Side by Side, Vocational Services are individualized and directed by each person’s goals and desires. Working after a brain injury can be a complex undertaking. Our professional staff will help you navigate the journey of rediscovering your unique and valuable contribution in the world.
People can access our employment services as part of our day program, a stand-alone service or a combination of the two.
As Part of the Clubhouse Work-Oriented Day Program
- Work-ordered day participation with real-time peer and professional feedback provides natural support and scaffolding to practice work-based tasks in three different work units.
- Person-centered plans encourage you to claim experiences of success and failure that build insight and strategies to compensate for cognitive, communication, and physical challenges
- Group volunteer and social activities in the community offer opportunities to generalize and expand work-related abilities and gain new levels of confidence and self-sufficiency.
- Individualized vocational counseling is built into the day program to explore interests and options for going it alone- with our support of course!
As you progress, vocational services shift toward:
- Developing a support network to identify a good job match and making job modifications for a successful start
- Managing life skills to maintain employment
- Coaching on the job site as well as long term follow-along to proactively identify and address problems to ensure success
Stand-Alone Services
Before services begin, you should be well on your way to mastering:
Demonstrate insight into strengths and barriers resulting from the brain injury
- Manage life’s daily tasks with or without a network of supports
- Demonstrate skills specific to your desired field of work, and soft skills like getting along with co-workers and accepting supervisor feedback; or show willingness to develop new skills.
- A Certified Rehabilitation Counselor will meet individually with you to outline a path to employment that best fits your strengths and circumstances.
- Assessment includes a strength-based qualitative approach (same philosophy as in day program) versus a formalized evaluation using a labor market approach.
- Future sessions focus on career exploration, work readiness skill building, resume support, network development, job search support
- Once a suitable job is secured, services shift to job site coaching that gradually fades as self-sufficiency and confidence are gained.
- Long term follow-along by phone or in person will proactively identify and address issues that may interfere with success on the job before they become insurmountable problems.
Home-Based Life Skills Training & Coaching
Sometimes people need extra help with life’s daily responsibilities so they can be safe and healthy while living alone or without continual assistance at home.
Side by Side staff are available for Life Skills Training and Coaching to assist members in:
- Understanding strengths and challenges of higher level responsibilities like managing meals, day-to-day finances and household upkeep
- Developing and modifying systems to track and complete these responsibilities
- Emergency preparedness and healthy lifestyle choices
- Time management of multiple life activities
- Long- term weekly coaching to modify systems and to access additional support services as needed
Our Life Skills services provide a comprehensive program to manage Life’s Responsibilities. The program has three components:
Assessment & Plan Development
Participate in Life Skills Assessment in your home and community. Then work with Side by Side staff and others you trust to develop a Life Skills Plan with action steps (2-4 weeks)
Life Skills Training
Participate in Life Skills Training to learn systems that make it easier to manage day-to-day responsibilities (4-12 weeks)
Life Skills Coaching
Transition to Life Skills Coaching to modify systems as life changes come your way and to keep moving toward managing health and well-being (ongoing)
Side by Side Brain Injury Clubhouse is a place for brain-injured adults to work together in a supportive environment to move from hospital patients to contributing community members.
Side by Side’s staff know that each brain injury is unique. Our interdisciplinary team meets each person where they are and work together to determine which of our programs work best for them. That person drives the creation of their goals toward independence are and we use an individualized approach to support them.
Side by Side is a place to get the skills you need to achieve a new normal life with the joys and accomplishments you want to experience.