In the Anita Community School district, youth with disabilities identify their occupational interest area as early as their freshman year by including a statement in their individual transition plan. A variety of opportunities to gain employability skills are offered to youth with disabilities through a unique program called Career Ladders. Career Ladders focuses on pairing youth with disabilities with their nondisabled peers. In many cases, students without disabilities learn to become peer mentors for students of the same age with disabilities. The School to Work Coordinator reports that students with and without disabilities are learning job tasks and routines that match their own interests, together in work settings.
Mentors act as peer buddies to assist students with disabilities on the job and in the classroom.
For example, for a student who has difficulty following oral directions, a mentor may shadow the youth as she or he performs tasks at the job site. Unlike job coaches, mentors help their fellow students understand procedures or directions of a task, when necessary. It is important to note that these mentoring students have not been through the school to work process before and do not have the training skills required to perform as a job coach. Their assistance in the form of modeling, or becoming peer buddies, helps youth with disabilities to adapt more readily to the work setting. To date, Anita schools have not yet worked with youth with significant disabilities, but do have plans to begin this as their School to Work design evolves.