Empowered Transitions

Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities (OOD) offers services for students (and adults) aged 14 and older with a range of disabilities, including physical, learning, mental health, sensory, hearing, and vision disabilities. We personalize our services to meet each individual's unique needs, helping students explore different job options, gain work experience through paid opportunities, engage in job shadowing, plan for post-high school goals, manage benefits for greater independence, and find employment that aligns with their skills and preferences.

Call our Northwest Ohio Regional Office at 419-866-5811 or 1-800-589-5811 (toll free).

For qualifying individuals, the Defiance County Board of DD provides referral and linkage to employment services, like OOD, or services that provide job coaches and other support. The Defiance County Board of DD can also provide linkage to transportation for the purpose of employment.

For qualifying individuals, the Defiance County Board of DD provides referral and linkage to supports that can lead to independent living with individualized support designed to meet the needs of the individual, including support to participate in the community and have transportation to community events

Defiance County Special Olympics

The mission of Special Olympics Ohio is to provide year-round sports training and competition opportunities for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Through successful experiences in sports, individuals gain confidence and build a positive self-image which carries over into their home, job and community.

Kate Blakeley, Transition SSA

419-782-6621, ext 220

Education Services: CCMEP engages participants in meaningful employment and training activities that can help students build lifelong, sustainable careers.

Employment Services: Build professional skills that will help you excel in today’s workforce. Stop in our resource room for resume assistance, job assistance, and labor market information. Or try out our Virtual Reality Career Exploration VR goggles and submerge yourself in career specific activities.

Defiance Office: 419-784-3777

Paulding Office: 419-399-3345

Transition Planning for adulthood is an important part of the IEP planning process.  It is important to have information from a variety of team members – including the student and family members.  Below are several tools and How-to videos to help you bring the student’s voice into transition planning. 

Trajectory for Exploring Tool – Create a vision for your good life.  The trajectory tool helps you identify what you want for your future – and what you don’t want.  This can be helpful in goal-setting conversations to prepare youth for their future.

Life Vision – Explore the different life domains to help students think about all aspects of their adult lives.  This tool can help identify priorities for the transition planning team. 

Take 5 Video: Charting the LifeCourse – Not sure where to start?  Watch this short video on the Charting the LifeCourse tools to understand how you may use the different tools. 

 

The OCALI Lifespan Transitions Center has many different tools to help plan for the future, prioritize skills and goals, and even assess student’s skills for the future. 

PINS 4-Square Organizer - Prior to gathering new information, the team organizes what is already known about the student into a Youth Profile. The Youth Profile is broken into 4 categories – Preference, Interests, Needs, and Skills or Strengths – commonly called PINS.  All team members, including the student and family, contribute information to the Youth Profile. 

Watch this How-to Video to learn how to use this PINS 4-Square Organizer.  There’s no wrong way to use these tools!