Our Services

We believe that there is a role for everyone in the labor market. Our goal is to help program participants find their role, obtain the skills necessary to accomplish it, and increase their independence ‘on site’. To this end, CIWP provides a wide range of dynamic and individualized vocational opportunities.

Participants are supported with a ‘ready to work’ foundation. They learn broad skills such as work ethic, time management, staying focused, and following directions. They may also learn more specific skills such as how to interview, and task related skills such as stocking shelves, filing cabinets, organizing inventory, or even janitorial duties. Participants are encouraged to work toward specific and measurable skills that can be applied to many work prospects.

Once ready for gainful employment, participants with the help of our job development team, find paid employment in the community. We proudly work for Valley Children’s Hospital, Trader Joe’s, Cold Stone Creamery, 7-11, Subway, Pizza Hut, Olive Garden, Shell, Chili’s Bar & Grill, Curves, and many more.

A variety of non-paid work opportunities in the community are also available for participants in their job readiness phase. We proudly contribute to our communities in our service to: Project Ride, Local Food Banks, Triton Museum, Santa Clara City Library, Children’s Discovery Museum, Bruceville Terrace, Happy Hollow, St. Vincent de Paul, East Bay Regional Park District, Senior Gleaners, among many others.

CIWP is proud to offer this exciting vocational alternative of business owning. With our assistance, program participants will learn the process of developing and running their own individual ‘nano’ business. This program develops a business model based on individual interests and skills. Some of our business owners operate vending machines, make and sell hand made gifts, greeting cards, organic produce vending, among many others.

Accessing the community is the core element of integration. CIWP supports and teaches program participants to use all available community resources in their life activities such as cashing or depositing pay checks at banks, budgeting and completing shopping tasks at community stores, planning and enjoying restaurants outings, using the public transportation systems for easy access to and from places, and navigating busy streets safely as pedestrians.

CIWP teaches how to value and care for our health. As such, we teach to make healthy choices in nutrition and physical activities. We highly encourage participation in the regional Special Olympics program along with other favorite fitness programs easily available in local communities.

Self-advocacy is achieved by directing the course of one’s life and standing up for one’s rights in a respectful and effective way. CIWP works with our participants to advocate for themselves on many levels. This ranges from expressing oneself respectfully and assertively to becoming an informed and active voter. Self-advocacy is the focus of weekly Self Advocacy Meetings, called People First Group.

The Social Skills and Effective Communication Assessment targets participants’ ability to cope with common social stressors, identify emotions and the triggers for those emotions, respect the personal boundaries of various groups of people, and engage in basic and complex conversations with community members, staff, and peers. Participants work on these social skills through a blend of facilitated discussion, role playing, and real-time modeling in the community.

The ability to communicate effectively opens the door to countless opportunities for increased independence. Participants are assessed on their ability to both receptively and expressively communicate basic wants and needs. For participants who do not communicate verbally, CIWP offers training in various Assisted and Augmented Communication (AAC) techniques. The most common of these are picture communication, object communication, and sign/individualized gestures.

In addition to its Adult Development Program services, CIWP offers Behavioral Management Program (BMP) services for participants who need extra support to reduce challenging behaviors.

CIWP uses practical applications of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to help individuals reduce unwanted behaviors and replace them with more adaptive and pro-social ones. We provide a wide range of support to promote long-lasting improvements, including the following:

• Modifying the environment to provide a productive and enriching program for each individual.
• Behavioral assessments that identify triggers and reinforcing conditions.
• Teaching participants new skills that will help them replace the undesired behavior.
• Developing both formal and informal reinforcement programs to help motivate participants to use
  replacement skills.

Individuals participating in the behavioral program receive regular consultation with the Behavior Analyst as well as enhanced quarterly reporting.