By Chrissy Horton
Right here in Kettering, Ohio, the students of the Dayton Regional STEM School (DRSS) and clients of Capabilities Inc. held their first meeting on January 14, 2016 for the new, community-based partnership between their organizations. The clients of Capabilities Inc. help improve the functioning of DRSS classrooms by helping teachers prepare materials, copy student worksheets, and organize homework folders. The students of DRSS help the clients of Capabilities Inc. prepare for work/office settings, and help them build their personal resumes and cover letters. The relationship between these two organizations are extremely beneficial to them both, in which DRSS receives valuable volunteer help and the clients of Capabilities Inc. receive on-the-job training.
Right here in Kettering, Ohio, the students of the Dayton Regional STEM School (DRSS) and clients of Capabilities Inc. held their first meeting on January 14, 2016 for the new, community-based partnership between their organizations. The clients of Capabilities Inc. help improve the functioning of DRSS classrooms by helping teachers prepare materials, copy student worksheets, and organize homework folders. The students of DRSS help the clients of Capabilities Inc. prepare for work/office settings, and help them build their personal resumes and cover letters. The relationship between these two organizations are extremely beneficial to them both, in which DRSS receives valuable volunteer help and the clients of Capabilities Inc. receive on-the-job training.
Capabilities Inc. is an organization that strives to provide people with
differing abilities the maximum support to achieve and sustain their goals. The
community outreach director of DRSS, Arch Grieve, stated that: “The folks from Capabilities, Inc. did a lot of work on their
first day here, including helping teachers copy worksheets, preparing materials
to be used in one of our Language Arts classes, and helping some of our
teachers get caught up on filing homework folders. They were truly a great help
and we are looking forward to their next visit!”
An example of how
Capabilities Inc. fulfills their mission is by helping them prepare to enter
the workforce, in which a few members from the DRSS Key Club help them with. Their
first meeting was held in the conference room across from Mrs. Campbell’s
classr. During this meeting, the selected members of Key Club and clients of
Capabilities Inc. were introduced to each other. For the first portion of the
meeting, everyone began by creating art pieces to show their individuality and
creativity. As time passed the students and clients began to join their art
projects together, as they were eager to engage with each other. Soon after
this aspect of the meeting, DRSS students started to help the volunteers begin
their first drafts of a possible resume they could use in the future. The Key
Club members who attended this meeting are able to help these volunteers with their
resumes because of the Technical Reading and Writing class they have taken with
Mrs. McDaniel, in which two main projects of the class were to create cover
letters and resumes for themselves.
Jessica Whitaker of Capabilities Inc. was the individual behind bringing about this partnership. When asked about the partnership, she explained that: “I feel that the partnership between the Dayton Regional STEM School and the Capabilities Community Club is mutually beneficial. Our members look forward to the next day we can work with the STEM students and staff. Hopefully this is the start of a long term partnership!”
The second visit of the Capabilities Community Club took place on Thursday, February 11th, 2016.
