This summer the Community First Department provided the Summer Youth Work Experience, which was a wonderful opportunity for transition students to get out in the community and experience several types of jobs. We had fifteen students complete the program and two that were hired on after finishing the program. We would like to thank the following businesses for giving these students this experience: the Hillsboro Elks Golf Course, Four Seasons Boarding, Grooming, and Training; Star Cinemas, Highland County Family YMCA, and Ponderosa. Without the support of these businesses this would not have been possible. THANK YOU!! We would also like to thank the students and families of those who participated. Without the families support and students’ willingness to learn new things this program would not have been the success that it was. THANK YOU!! All the students walked away from the program with new skills, such as: how to do a variety of maintenance work, being a dishwasher, being a cashier, and working in customer service. They also gained the knowledge of working together as a team and how it feels to be working young adults.

HCBDD is a provider for Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD) through our Community First Department and recently OOD provided us with a scorecard of our Job Development Services. We received high scores for providing excellent services to job seekers. Successful job closures and retention was at 88%, which is much higher than the statewide score of 55%. Through OOD we provide Pre-Employment Services, Summer Youth Work Experience, and Job Development Services. All of the services aid in developing transition students in our county to be successful in job placement.