This article is brought to you by Silver Birch Living of Kokomo. An independent life with a supportive hand. A different kind of affordable assisted living community. Silver Birch of Kokomo offers a full spectrum of personalized services to help older adults maintain their independence in a supportive, caring environment. For more information, visit Silver Birch of Kokomo online.
It turns out that recovery from addiction and attaining career goals have something in common. Both are more successful with proper support. That similarity made a recent visit from Indiana Wesleyan University’s (IWU) Mobile Career Lab a natural fit for Turning Point System of Care.
The lab rolled into Kokomo on Oct. 18, bringing with it career and skill assessments and connections to education and resources that will support each participant’s journey to career success. According to
IWU recognized that the labor market is constantly changing, and up-skilling or re-skilling workers to meet demand, especially in marginalized communities, can be difficult. The university stepped in by creating a Mobile Career Lab. With it, the hope is people will access opportunities and resources otherwise unavailable to them and meet the needs of the market and themselves.
The career lab’s programming is centered around assessing participants’ skills, talents, and interests – their “agilities” – and putting together an aspirational map to lead them to their career goals. Through coaching, advising, and connecting people to resources, the mobile career lab is opportunity on wheels.
According to Naketa Catchings, Recovery Café coordinator at Turning Point, the career lab follows the same philosophy as the road to recovery.
“It’s like counting your recovery capital,” said Catchings. “You can look at your life and all the things in it, and then you see where you're landing. Do you have support and family? Are you housed? Do you attend meetings? Do you have a job? If your recovery capital is higher, you have a greater chance of continuing to stay clean and sober. If you have the support, you have a greater chance to getting an education.”
According to Carla Biro, IWU’s Director of Mobile Career Labs, the vision of the lab was to bring career resources to under-served or marginalized communities.
“We are focused on poverty, communities of color, first gen students, to help them kind of navigate to what's next, getting them unstuck, moving them from A to B,” said Biro.
Indiana Wesleyan launched the mobile career lab in Indianapolis initially as the staff figured out what worked. Now, they are ready to expand the service into other communities, like Kokomo. Thanks to a strong relationship with Turning Point System of Care, the university chose to partner with them and bring the lab to the city.
Participants enter the bus and take a survey, which allows the staff to start a case file. People will fall into one of three categories, based on their survey responses. They will either be community partners interested in a tour of the career lab, individuals interested in the career lab’s services but lack a GED or high school equivalency, or those ready for the program.
In the case of the community partner, the individual is introduced to the service, and then opportunities for cooperation can be discussed. With those still needing a GED, they will be directed to the nearest high school equivalency program; in this case, the Kokomo Area Career Center.
But for those who have a GED and are ready to explore what might be next for them, the mobile career lab springs into action.
“If they decide to go through the entire process, there's a course they'll take in our talent ladder/Brightspace platform through Indiana Wesleyan,” said Biro. “Basically, it helps identify their top agilities and how to use them to figure out what's next.
“We sit down with them and talk about what they learned through the assessment. It's very individualized and relational. It also gives them the opportunity to list their barriers. Is it childcare, housing, food insecurity, sanitation? We connect them to the closest resources near their home to address them.”
Catchings explained that the visit was the second occasion for Turning Point patrons to explore the career lab. At an hour for processing, the schedule was tight, but she was hopeful that some of the participants found a path that leads them to an education.
“I think four or five of our members are already with Ivy Tech Community College or Indiana Wesleyan,” said Catchings. “We have seven coming to use the career lab today. That’s a full day. I think a lot of our members can benefit from this because it helps them see where their interests lie and helps find their purpose. So, I'm hoping quite a few take advantage of it.”
The IWU Mobile Career Lab is scheduled to return to Kokomo on Nov. 16 as part of the IWU Kokomo Thriving Center’s monthly Nonprofit Council and Faith Leader Council meetings. For additional information about the mobile career lab, email carla.biro@indwes.edu .