Brittney Johson has always been interested in working with animals.
Now, as a result of a new collaboration, she may get her chance.
Brittney was one of nine young adults with developmental disabilities who graduated in August from a 14-week kennel assistant certificate training program. Working with Craft LifeStyle Management (CLM) Farm in Ashland, Neb., Ollie Webb Center, the Madonna School and MMI, and with the help of a grant from the Nebraska Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities and the federal Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, project partners designed the pilot program to provide what developmental disability providers and the community saw as a needed opportunity.
“Working with animals and children are by far the most popular career pathways for people with developmental disabilities, and we wanted to expand those opportunities,” said Ian Froemming, employment liaison with MMI. “So we developed a program where we would take students out to CLM Farm, and they would interact with different animals. They learned safety procedures on interacting with the animals, how to care for the animals, how to clean up after them and what nutrition the animals needed — anything and everything.”
Summer Craft, employment services trainer with Madonna School, facilitated the on-the-job training portion of the class at the CLM Farm.
An animal science course already was being offered at Ollie Webb.
“It just made sense to collaborate. Ollie Webb offers prevocational training, so there’s the built-in client stream for the project. They love to think outside the box and are a pleasure to work with,” said Tara Harper, project principal investigator on the grant.
“At Ollie Webb, of course, we have continuing education classes in all venues, so we always are looking at different career tracks,” said Robin McArthur of Ollie Webb. “This was a great partnership. The people who participated every week learned new skills and foundations for getting jobs in the community In the future. So overall, it was a great match for us, because that’s what we do every day.”
Brittney said she enjoyed walking dogs and working on the farm with the animals, and she hopes to someday work at an animal day care.
“The program went really well,” said Pam Johnson, Brittney’s mother, who attended the ceremony along with Brittney’s father Loren. “We were so excited to hear about this collaboration — and to see Brittney receive her certificate.”