Community Integration

Ability Training Services focuses on community integration through our pre-employment skill building Day Support Activities (DSA) program, also known as community inclusion. DSA supports and activities occur in the community during regularly occurring, organized, scheduled, intentional, structured social activities and contribute to job readiness. 

Our DSA program provides supports including, but not limited to, the following:

• Community participation support (avoiding isolation, opportunity for socialization in places where an individual’s interest, culture, talent, and gifts can be contributed and shared with others with similar interests)
• Self-awareness support (respecting personal space, volume, odor, movements/gestures)
• Self-control support (compromising in a group decision, waiting your place in line)
• Self-advocacy 
• Expressive communication support (age appropriate conversation topics, initiating engagement with others)
• Receptive communication support (taking turns in a conversation, listening, understanding information, recall)
• Non-verbal communication support (appropriate eye contact, posture, gestures)
• Social responsiveness support (recognizing hazards or unsafe situations in the community, “stranger danger”)
• Social amenities support (recognizing the end of an engagement)
• Interpersonal skills support (appropriate behavior near certain groups, coping with social anxiety, build and strengthen relationships)
• Coordinating personal time and location/navigation (using watches, phones, computers, clocks, maps, street signs, calendars, bus schedules, community landmarks, signage & symbols, alarms)
• Social planning (help develop the skills needed to discover, initiate, plan and engage in new, interesting, and enjoyable activities as well as in things that involve the broader community)
• Support to participate in clubs, association, and organizations (as members and in decision-making capacity)

ATS participants receive a calendar of events each month from which they can choose specific activities to participate in. We typically provide 25-30 monthly opportunities for participants to choose from. Each involve community integration and specific skill building.