We asked two of our Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) Staff Members (Sophie and Lauren) about their experiences working in Community and Employment Services at KW Habilitation and here’s what they had to say:

How did you hear about the job?

“I saw the Summer Job Coach posting on Indeed and thought it looked really interesting. I also knew someone who works here at KW Habilitation and reached out to them about the program to get a better idea of it.” – Sophie a CSJ Job Coach for KW Career Compass

“I worked at KW habilitation previously in 2021 as a Direct Support Worker in Inclusive Living and was interested in returning to the organization.” – Lauren a CSJ YEP Summer Staff 

Why did you want to work for KW Habilitation?

“After looking into the posting and KW Habilitation as an organization, I was very interested in working here. I grew up in Kitchener and I loved that this was a very community-driven organization and program. It also looked like an amazing learning opportunity, and a chance to have a job where I could work with people and make a difference in their lives.” – Sophie a CSJ Job Coach for KW Career Compass

“I liked working at KW Hab before and I enjoy working with teenagers. YEP summer also seemed like there were lots of opportunities to get out and be in the community.” – Lauren a CSJ YEP Summer Staff  

What have you learned that you will be able to take with you to future employment?

“I’ve learned many tips and tricks for organizing a plan for working with an individual and coming up with different activities to help them learn new concepts in a fun way.  I learned how to balance a caseload of 5 individuals, each at a very different point in the learning process with very different goals in mind. I’ve also learned that working with people requires a lot of patience sometimes, and you can’t always get to everything you wanted to do with them. Sometimes, you just have to do your best and take it one thing at a time.” – Sophie a CSJ Job Coach for KW Career Compass

“Working at Kw hab has provided me with excellent opportunities to practice my communication skills. For example, providing instructions for camp activities in simple plain language.” – Lauren a CSJ YEP Summer Staff 

What are 2-3 highlights from the summer?

“One highlight from the summer was leading my own Email Etiquette Workshop. I had 3 people attending this workshop and it went really well! I’m usually very anxious for presentations and I’ve never had to create a workshop before, so it was a very nerve-wracking experience. However, the workshop went very smoothly, I could tell that the people there were interested and learned a lot, I could even see a difference in their emails after the workshop!

Another highlight was the Old Navy Workshop. It took place during the 3rd week of working with my caseload, and up until that point, I had only seen them working with me during our meetings. The workshop gave me a chance to see them all interact with each other and see how they do in an activity that was not led by me. It also gave me an opportunity to see how they would perform in an interview and create a list of things they did well and things to work on. It was my first time attending an interview workshop and it was an incredible learning experience for myself and everyone I was working with!

A final highlight from my summer was having the chance to go out into the community and look at a wide variety of jobs. I took one of my students to the mall, and was lucky enough to meet an employee at a few different stores willing to tell us a bit about their job so that my student could have a better idea of the jobs he was interested in. This experience also showed me how great people in my community are, and that many strangers were nice enough to help us out when they didn’t need to.” – Sophie a CSJ Job Coach for KW Career Compass

“Getting to know all the campers has been my biggest positive takeaway from this summer. I feel that I have built strong rapport with everyone who has come though our program. I have also enjoyed attending some of the community activities like Ctrl V (virtual reality) and mini golf.” – Lauren a CSJ YEP Summer Staff