Outreach Skill and Vocational Training Programs for People with Disabilities

People with Special Needs (children and adults) are heavily dependent on regularity, structure, familiar schedules and routines, school/ vocational training classes/ workplace systems, and lots of outdoor & physical activities to help them stay calm and composed. They had been struggling during the COVID19 lockdown, due to the sudden change and the lockdown that was imposed on them. The families approached Sunrise Learning and our team offered a support system through digital learning. Since April 2020, around 30 team members are conducting Pre-Vocational & Vocational training, Counseling sessions, functional academics & skill training classes for these students (both children and adults), and they have been progressing since then. Through these classes, they have found structure, meaningful engagement, means of small employment, integration of their senses, and ways to keep themselves occupied and learning. But the demand has exceeded the supply. The team needs a better digital platform, as many of them are conducting these classes on their phones. It compromises the quality of the classes and limits the possibilities and number of people that can be enrolled in these sessions, that can help and support these people. So there is a need for laptops/desktops and projectors to reach out to the differently-abled people who are struggling all over the country and had been trying to get support & guidance from SUNRISE LEARNING since the last few years.

For taking our support systems to the next level, and for creating an outreach program for the differently-abled people, we have acquired the GSuite for Education and now, we are conducting Counselling and guidance sessions, skill training classes, creative production, Computer training classes (basic, advanced and pre-professional), life skill training, music, dance, professional art courses, etc for the special people, and Parent Empowerment Programs for their parents. With limited resources, we are still reaching out to 100-120 people every day. We have a huge array of activities that we do with the differently-abled children and many skill-based training sessions for young adults. The young adults are also being given small projects to work on for opportunities of "learning" and "earning". We are working on empowerment to help them head towards independence and dignity. Despite having some unique strengths, like amazing "visual" abilities, "focus on details", zero "interest in gossip", incredible cognitive abilities in savants, people with autism are mostly under-employed and under-paid, due to their poor social-communication and inter-personal skills, difficulties in adaptation and lack of "suitable and conducive" work environments. If the people with autism are "trained" exclusively for these work adaptations, and the employers are sensitized for their "special needs", it can bring about a significant bridging of the gap between their abilities and employment. This is exactly what we are trying to do, through these outreach programs.

Sunrise Learning works to provide Empowerment, Vocational Skill Training, Independence, and Dignity to people with special needs and provides awareness, information, empowerment, guidance, counseling, and support system for their families. It also works for bringing awareness, acceptance, and inclusion for them in society. Through these Outreach programs, we are creating platforms of opportunity for these people to come forward, acknowledge and accept their challenges, feel confident, identify their strengths, learn skills, hone their strengths, accept themselves for who they are, work on their weaknesses, and work on projects for employment and meaningful engagement. It can lead to significant rehabilitation, lesser frustration and aggression, more harmony in the families, and a trained neurodiverse workforce, with "special abilities" for the country.