Workforce Growth Board of Solano County and associate company Caminar assist Fairfield girl discover her dream job.
by Gail Allyn Brief
Leslie Carrillo, 43, of Fairfield, as soon as labored as a tutor, however her bipolar sickness obtained in the best way and interfered together with her efforts to land a extra everlasting place.
“There have been instances after I didn’t wish to go to work. I had nervousness of one thing going improper or doing one thing improper or not with the ability to slot in,” she says.
However Carrillo discovered assist at Caminar, a nonprofit behavioral well being and social companies company and a associate group for the Workforce Growth Board (WDB) of Solano County. Caminar case managers helped Carrillo with what she says was a complicated and anxiety-provoking quantity of paperwork on the time to use for unemployment.
Whereas there, she and Caminar employment specialist Roxanne Medearis struck up a dialog.
As an employment specialist, Medearis says she analyzes every shoppers’ degree of training, abilities, work historical past and objectives and teaches them easy methods to fill out job functions. She additionally conducts mock job interviews and instructs shoppers on easy methods to perform a profitable job hunt.
Additional, for shoppers with psychological well being challenges like Carrillo, Medearis says she reminds them to make use of no matter coping methods their case managers taught them to make use of each time they really feel symptomatic whereas on the job.
“Leslie had already had faculty programs behind her,” says Medearis, “and she or he needed to show. That was her aim. In order that’s why we linked her with the Workforce Growth Board.”
On the Solano County WDB, Carrillo met with Rachelle Franko, a incapacity useful resource specialist for profession counseling.
“She got here to us in search of job seeker companies,” says Franko. “She didn’t know what she actually needed to do. So we labored via that, what she was capable of do and the talents she gained from working for previous employers and mentioned what she needed to do.”
Franko says she instructed that Carrillo take into account turning into a faculty paraeducator. She thought the job could be a very good match for Carrillo as a result of she loved working with younger folks.
Carrillo agreed and enrolled in and accomplished a two-week paraeducator coaching course sponsored by the Solano County Workplace of Schooling.
At the moment, she is a classroom paraeducator working with kindergarten and first grade college students with particular wants.
“I like it,” Carillo says. “I discovered one thing daily. It’s enjoyable, and it looks like I’m giving again to society.”
“I couldn’t have executed it with out them, that’s for positive,” she provides of the Solano County WDB and Caminar. “Being bipolar and having a lot data coming at me introduced on nervousness. However they have been capable of inform me what my subsequent steps have been and what would get me from level A to level B.”
Her recommendation to others?
“Don’t quit. There are sources on the market that will help you.”
