• Foundation Building
• Job Search
• Job Coaching

:: Foundation Building ::

Foundation Building is our vocational life skills program. It is a combination of Job Readiness Assessment, Vocational Life Skill Training & Interest and Ability Assessment. The program has two objectives:

1. To identify workplace challenges relating to your Asperger Syndrome and to develop strategies to address these challenges so that you can be more successful in a job.


2. To determine realistic career directions for you to pursue based upon your interests, education, skills, talents and abilities, balanced with your challenges and the labor market.

Foundation Building takes place at one of our Host Employers. As our client, you will be involved in a very real work experience from day one. We work with you one to one and make sure that you know exactly what is expected from you. When you are working with us, you will be the only person in our program working at that company. You will be included like everyone else and you will have an opportunity to learn new things and meet some really great people!

During Foundation Building, we will be watching to see how you interact with staff, how you take instruction, how you learn, and all other aspects of interacting in the office. We will identify any obstacles you might have to employment and start working on overcoming them.

People attend our Foundation Building program from across Canada and the United States. The program involves four half-days per week for three to four weeks depending upon your needs. At the end of the program you will receive a detailed report that explains our findings and recommendations including strategies and career direction. At this point you are ready for phase two: Job Search

:: Job Search ::

Once you have successfully completed the Foundation Building program, you are ready to let us find you a job.

From the Foundation Building program, we know what jobs you will be good at and we target those. It's now up to Hawkins Institute to make the phone calls and knock on the doors until we find the right job for you. We even prepare your resume and get letters of reference from our Host Employers and any other employers you have had in the past.

The Interview

While we are doing the job search, we will be working with you to build your interview skills. When we get you an interview, we will go with you, introduce you and then we will negotiate what happens next. We want you to be as comfortable as possible so that you can do well.

Follow Up

We pride ourselves on the support we give both you and your employer. We will go with you to your new job to help you learn your routine and meet your co-workers. We also help the employer understand more about you and teach them how they can help you do your best.

:: Job Coaching ::

Job coaching is a vital component to being successful in maintaining your job. Everyone needs job coaching at some point in their career-regardless of whether they have a disability or not.

Some people require a lot of general job support while others may only need support with something very specific. Either way, Hawkins Institute provides excellent solution-oriented job coaching that gets results.

Job Coaching is included with the Job Search package, however it also can be provided separately.

Fees

Hawkins Institute is a private consulting service. This means that we charge for our services. Many of our clients apply for funding (see below) from the Ontario Government to pay our fees. For a full outline of our fees, please request our brochure and fee schedule.

We offer a half-hour free phone consultation to determine whether Hawkins Institute is right for your needs.  You may contact us (416) 466-5498 or send us an email at info@hawkinsinstitute.com

Funding

Ontario residents may apply for funding to cover our services through The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), Employment Supports.

Offices: