How to Participate
As Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month begins, we invite industry leaders to help build a more inclusive community. Move from awareness to action by making meaningful adjustments in your industry to support individuals and families.
Step 1:Choose two (2) initiatives to commit to
Step 2:Submit Your Pledge to become an official partner
Initiatives
Your pledge to partner with the WOW Center commits to transforming your business into an inclusive and supportive space for individuals with disabilities.
① Equip Your Team
Host a disability sensitivity training for your staff or incorporate disability sensitivity material into your onboarding process.
② Implement Supportive Practices
Commit to implementing a supportive practice within your industry.
③ Hire or Host an Intern
For one day, consider hosting a WOW intern at your business.
Partner Benefits
✔ Ongoing support from the WOW Team to guide your inclusion efforts.✔ Recognition as an Official Partner on this website✔ A window decal & welcome packet to showcase your commitment to inclusion.
Official Partners
Partner Testimonials
SHAKE SHACK
Where do i begin? Since you started with Shake Shack you have brought so much to our team. Your smile, positivity, enthusiasm, and joy is so contagious. It’s not about the work at Shake Shack. It’s always about our people. You are the definition of our culture. Thats what we call a 51%er. Thank you for all that you do.
EMPOWER FARMS
It is a pleasure and an honor to work with our Teammates from the WOW. They are friendly and motivated, and always put their hearts into their work.They understand the value of teamwork, and take pride in what they do. Our Teammates from the WOW Center are an integral part of our team, and we are grateful to each one of them for all that they do!
AZUCAR
Working with Jessica and Darren has been such an amazing journey. To watch them grow and develop new skills has not only been a great experience, but inspiring. We are so grateful to The WOW Center for everything they do to ensure individuals with disabilities have the support they need to maintain employment in the community.
Become an Official Partner
Our goal is to equip leaders like you to transition from awareness to action, fostering inclusion in all facets of community life.
Miami has over 270,000 individuals with disABILITIES that we get to serve
FAQ
Supported employment is about supporting people with significant disabilities and neurodiversity as they enter the nation’s labor force. We accomplish this through on-site support, training, skill development, and job matching through a process called Discovery.
The WOW Work Experience Program is a branch of The WOW Center dedicated to serving neurodiverse individuals as they find job placement through training, internship opportunities, and paid employment support by our team of highly qualified Job Coaches and Developers.
The goal of our unpaid internships is to help adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities identify their personal vocational tracks and then train in those fields with the goal of achieving their employment of choice.
Unpaid internships can be one-day, three-day, or intensive six-week internships. They are a great opportunity for both the individual and the job site to find out if they are a good fit for each other.
A job coach is a professional who helps prepare people for employment, support them during employment, and offer support and guidance to their employers. As individuals gain proficiency in their job, the job coach should begin to back away.
Yes! A job coach will, initially, be present with the individual while they work. For the duration of the internship, individuals will be working closely with their job coach, who will be on hand and on site to facilitate their mastery of job tasks. Once the job coach is confident that the individual has mastered the job, we will begin to reduce our coaching services based on the individual’s need for support.
Yes! In fact, many of the individuals who participate in our internship program are hired by their internship site. Paid Employment is our ultimate goal.
Most job sites that hire individuals with disabilities see a marked rise in team spirit and get to experience the many advantages of working in a neuro-diverse environment.
No. Your General Liability and Worker’s Compensation insurances will stay the same.
Our interns and employees tend to use Special Transport Services (STS) to get to and from work independently.
According to HIPAA Laws, it is illegal to ask someone what their disability is. However, they are free to self-identify and talk about their disability. When it comes to HIPAA Law, only pertinent PSI can be shared with providers of services, not employers.
When it comes to HIPAA Law, only pertinent PSI can be shared with providers. Job Coaches are not able to share any medical information unless the individual has self-identified, and it is relevant to their job and affects their ability to perform their job.
You can help by offering an internship opportunity to an individual. Join us on our mission to make Miami more Inclusive!
