4-Youth Audio Introduction

The 4-Youth program is a 22-week employability and life skills program designed for youth ages 18-30 with a disability. The first four weeks of the program contain employability workshops, while participants spend the remainder of the program completing a community project.

 

During the program, the youth identify, address, and work to overcome their employment barriers. The workshops and activities include such topics as: self esteem and confidence building, identifying strengths, overcoming weaknesses, goal setting, communication, stress management and many more. Throughout creating the community project, the group learns to work together as a team while contributing their own pieces to the project.

 

The community project is hands-on and differs depending on the interests and skills of each group.  Community projects in the past have included presentations to schools, writing a children’s book, running a social games night, developing a board game and creating pieces of art for a community event.

 

Another component of the 4-Youth program is the volunteer placement. After the first four weeks are completed, participants begin to volunteer in various areas of interest. This allows the youth to gain experience that could lead to further goal setting and provides them with additional hands-on knowledge of the workplace.

 

 

Making Headlines:

4-Youth Art Defies Stigmas - The Halifax Commoner, by Greg Wade

 “It’s not your normal atmosphere (at reachAbility),” said Hynes. “Everybody’s positive, everybody’s bringing you up. We’re all doing the same thing and we’re all on the same track.”

 

FilmPossible Short Film Challenge - Bringing Visibility to Disability challenge…

 

How Do I Get Involved?

Our application process for this session of the 4-Youth program is currently closed. Please watch this space for future opportunities to participate in the next session!

If an individual is already associated with a case management agency, then they can speak directly to their case manager about being referred to the desired program(s).

If an individual is not already case managed, but wishes to participate in a particular program, they can contact reachAbility any time for contact numbers for a case management agency or questions regarding the referral process.

 

Caseworkers and case managers, please click here to access the Referral Form to register your clients.

 

For more information about 4-YOUTH please contact:

Gary Owen Porter

429-5878
gary@reachability.org

Specific Accommodation(s) available upon request.

 

 

 4 Youth Participant Quotes

“Of all the ways the 4-Youth program has helped me, I would say that my levels of confidence have increased substantially! This program has given me the means to truly feel confident in myself for the first time in a long time. Gradually going from being afraid to interact with people to feeling reasonable comfortable doing so is such a great thing.”

“Without this program, I would not be where I am today.”

“Ever since I was in the 4-Youth program, my family has seen a big difference in me. Some of the workshops that really helped me were stress management, confidence and budgeting.”

“4-Youth brought out the best in my abilities and skills. Even when I felt that I didn’t have the confidence to take on a new responsibility, I just had to think about what I had learned in the 4-Youth program.”