• Associate Employer
• The Host Employer Program

:: Associate Employer ::

An Associate Employer is simply any employer wishing to hire a competent individual from our program. The benefits of hiring a person with Asperger Syndrome are many. Here are a few to consider:

• Hardworking and dedicated
• Motivated
• Highly focused
• Often quite skilled in a particular area
• Help you to meet your employment equity requirements
• Come with support for training and transition into the job
• May have a wage subsidy attached to their employment to support success

Hawkins Institute is available to fully support the process of our client’s transition into their new job. In addition to job coaching we provide on-going follow-up support should any questions or issues arise after hiring. We are also in a position to negotiate wage subsidies when the situation suits because we appreciate that every employer must consider their bottom line.

Hawkins Institute recognizes that employers need support as well. Our staff will ensure that you are and your staff is educated around having an employee with Asperger Syndrome on your team. We will check in with you regularly to monitor how your new employee is fairing and to be proactive in supporting you.

:: Host Employer Program ::

What is the Host Employer Program?

Key to Hawkins Institute’s success in helping people with Asperger Syndrome acquire vocational skills and find meaningful work is our Host Employer Program.

A Host Employer is a company or organization that provides Hawkins Institute with a venue to conduct assessments while getting their work done for free.

It is at our Host Employers’ that Hawkins Institute runs its Foundation Building Program. Through this program we identify our client’s challenges and implement strategies to address them. This is done through one-on-one observation and teaching in a competitive work environment – the Host Employer’s site.

It is not Hawkins Institute’s goal to secure paid employment for our clients from our Host Employers. Ideally when one client finishes our program, we would like to return with another to do more work. In return for allowing Hawkins Institute to perform our assessments at their work sites, Host Employers receive 9 hours of work a week from one of our clients, 100% supervised by one of our Vocational Consultants. This frees up their paid employees to focus on work where they are needed most.

Everybody Wins!

WIN >>> Host Employer >>> 9 hours of free 100% supervised work per week

WIN >>> Person With Asperger Syndrome >>> Experience in real world competitive work setting

WIN >>> Hawkins Institute >>> Venue to conduct our assessments

• How Host Employers Help
• The Role of the Host Employer
• The Ideal Host Employer
• Suitable Jobs for our Clients at Host Employers
• Jobs to Avoid
• Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

How Host Employers Help

Host Employers help people with Aspergers Syndrome by:

• Providing a valuable work experience in a real-world environment
• Offering a venue that allows Hawkins Institute to identify the challenges that may impede their potential for success
• Allowing Hawkins Institute to help our clients develop the skills required to enable them to realize their employment goals
• Providing a venue that helps to identify the need for further education, training or life skills coaching
• Giving our clients an opportunity to build their confidence and self-esteem

The Role of the Host Employer

The Host Employer is asked to provide:

• 9 hours per week of suitable work assignments Offering a venue that allows Hawkins Institute to identify the challenges that may impede their potential for success
• An appropriate work space for Hawkins Institute to complete both your assignments and our client assessments
• One main contact person to answer questions and give direction
• Informal feedback about the client

The Ideal Host Employer

The best Host Employer site:

• Provides an environment that is inclusive and positive (this does wonders for our clients’ self-esteem)
• Is a company or organization that can provide an environment with 5 – 15 employees (for large or medium size companies, this might mean a department, branch or designated area of the office)
• Is easily accessible by public transit
• Provides Hawkins Institute with a steady flow of varied work assignments

Suitable Jobs for our Clients at Host Employers

• Data entry – alpha and numeric
• Filing, faxing, sorting, photocopying – ‘Person Friday’
• Mailings, labeling, stuffing envelopes, creating mailing lists
• Cataloguing and archiving
• Assembly, manufacturing, packaging
• Organizing: files, databases, storage rooms
• Errands, deliveries within walking distance or transit distance
• Most tasks that are systematic, routine or repetitive in nature

Jobs to Avoid

• Reception duties or phone work
• Jobs that require a lot of judgment or decision-making skills
• Jobs that require a lot of on-going interaction with the public

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

• Our clients are supervised by one of our Vocational Consultants 100% of the time they are at a Host Employer site
• Our clients are screened before entering the program to ensure that they are suitable to work in a professional environment
• Each client’s assessment is 9 hours per week for 4 weeks – 3 hours a day for three days a week
• Only one client will be at a Host Employer placement at any given time
• There is no expectation of paid employment for our client at the end of an assessment placement
• Ideally there will be enough work to do that when one client is finished our program, Hawkins Institute can bring a new client to the Host Employer site
• While clients change, it is generally the same Hawkins Institute Vocational Consultant on site at the Host Employer. This provides continuity and consistency and prevents retraining
• Hawkins Institute is a recognized service provider with the Ontario government and affiliated with the Geneva Centre for Autism, an internationally recognized autism organization