In this episode, Michelle Wakeford, the founder of Ticket to Work, discusses the importance of creating meaningful employment opportunities for young people with intellectual disability and how families and schools can make this happen. She draws on her extensive experience as both a professional in systems change and a parent of a child with Down syndrome. 

Research has shown that the key indicators of post-school success for students with disability are work experience and paid work while still at school. Michelle described how both can be difficult for students with disability to access, especially with prevailing low expectations within schools and other government agencies.  Other barriers are the fragmentation of funding for employment support and a lack of collaboration between entities.

Michelle established Ticket to Work, an evidence-based pilot program to support young people with disability in exploring work during their high school years. Her current area of exploration is Transition to Work, a youth-specific, evidence-based employment support program designed to assist young people with disability in transitioning from school to further education and training and ultimately into work. 

You can watch this presentation on our website.

The presentation transcription is also on our website.

On our website, you’ll find:

• all the presentations from our Opening Opportunities conference in 2023
• many other resources about helping a person with disability find meaningful employment
• events related to employment and other topics relevant to people with disabilities seeking to enjoy a typical life.

Many thanks to Osher Marks, who is the voice of this season of the Imagine More podcast.