Joshua’s Path: Careers for Neurodivergent Adults, with Sam Salver, LCSW | EDB 259
Sam Salver of JFS Broward discusses how their Joshua’s Path program is helping neurodivergent adults find jobs.
(VIDEO – 23 minutes) Sam is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the Program Coordinator for Joshua’s Path and BOOST at Jewish Family Services of Broward. The Joshua’s Path program at Goodman JFS supports, educates and empowers adults with developmental disabilities and their families, by providing individual consultations, assistance navigating the system, information, resources and referrals, and pathways to employment through social skills and work training.
For more about Joshua’s Path: jfsbroward.org
February is Jewish disability awareness and inclusion month, and JFS Broward / Joshua’s Path is hosting several free events. for more info, visit: jfsbroward.org/calendar/seminars-and-support-groups
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FULL TRANSCRIPTION
HACKIE REITMAN (HR):
Hi, I’m Dr. Hackie Reitman. Welcome to another episode of Exploring Different Brains. And today I’m very excited because right here in Fort Lauderdale, we got this great organization: Joshua’s Path, and they have a BOOST program. And they’re helping all of us whose brains are a little bit different. We might be a little bit different, Lumpy, whatever you want to call it. You’re doing so many good things. Samantha Salver, welcome to Different Brains.
SAM SALVER (SS):
Thank you for having me. Hackie. I’m very excited to be here.
HR:
Well, we’re very excited. We’re so glad that Emily Buckley introduced us to you and your organization’s cool, you’ve got quite a background, you got a master’s in social work from Barry University. And what I love about Joshua’s path and BOOST Program, which is all about we’re going to let you tell what it is, but it’s all about those of us with different brains and helping them and the the Goodman Jewish Family Services of Broward County do such a great job for so many. So what I’m going to do now, Samantha Salver, I’m going to shut up and let you talk and
SS:
I prefer you talking but okay, I suppose this is part of the package. Um, alright, so yes, I’m Sam Salver from Joshua’s Path at Goodman Jewish Family Services. Although we have the word Jewish in our title, we serve all backgrounds and all adults in the neurodivergent community in Broward County. So BOOST I love it because it was created as an acronym. It’s called Building on our strengths together. So this world has been so focused on what’s wrong and what we can’t do, and not focused enough on what we can do and what our strengths are. So that’s what we do it at Joshua’s Path. And in BOOST is we encourage our individuals to have their own individualized goals, we don’t tell them what we want for them, they tell us what they want, and we let them know how we can help them and if we can help them, then we refer them to someone else in the community that possibly can.
At BOOST is a work and volunteer exploration through social skills building, so what we do is we go all around the community to different businesses and organizations and foundations. And first, we meet people from about five different departments at each business. So we’ll meet marketing, President and CEO, secretaries, volunteers, people who work part time or full time, and we let them see what type of job might fit not only their interests, but their strengths. And within that, we also do some self exploration through sensory. So this warehouse job was it too hot for you? Was it too bright for you was a too large of a room for you? Um, do you think you could wear this uniform wear this uniform, be comfortable, and all these little details that they might have not thought of before or explored to really find what would be a good fit for them to be a part of our community, however, that looks like for them. And also, not only we’re exploring the community, but the community gets to kind of explore us also, and hear our positive take on things and encouraging everyone to see us and hear us and know that we’re here and that we are also part of the community.
HR:
What do you find to be your most challenging aspect that limits you?
SS:
Um, the most challenging part is being neurodivergent is such– It’s not one type of person. It’s an infinite amount of types of people. And although most of them probably have some sort of social social communication struggle, where that’s what we really focus on to help them You know, a lot of these guys are very academically inclined or have really niche skills that they would prosper in a community setting with the right social skills or the right. accommodations that not everyone knows that you can ask for, or that it’s okay to ask for those things. So yeah, it’s so it’s targeting what my lessons are and how I’m delivering them. I have nonverbal students and everyone’s an adult, so nonverbal to, to people who use social communication devices. And I have some homebound students that, you know, we bring volunteerism to them, we bring stuff to their home so they can help package things for food pantry for clothing pantry. We’re just trying to give them access to things that maybe no one gave them access to before.
HR:
Can you tell us a little bit about your own dyslexia?
SS:
Yeah, um, the long story short.
HR:
Make it a long story.
SS:
Okay. Alright, so I, I didn’t speak until I was three and I’m the youngest of three girls. So my mom and dad, I was very communicative facial expressions, noises Bruns, you know, pulling people the way I wanted to, but I didn’t talk till I was three. And it wasn’t until my grandfather told my mom that, hey, you might want to maybe get some testing done, there may or may not be something there. So over the next three years, I had a handful of IQ testing and learning disability testing. And I found out when I was in third grade that I was dyslexic. And it made a lot of sense, I wasn’t able to read yet. My writing was very difficult. And I avoided reading and writing at all costs, like I wouldn’t, I couldn’t. And then once I have the diagnosis, my mom was able to find me tutors who specialized in this and could help me relearn things.
So in fifth grade, I left school for a couple of months and did Lindamood-Bell, where I really learned how to read. Instead of phonetically was more vision, visual, and they changed my life I learned how to read when I was in fifth grade. And I was still never on grade level. I’m definitely not on grade level now. But uh, but it caught me up so that I could keep up with school with the right accommodations. And throughout since I was diagnosed, I’d have accommodations, extended time on testing notetakers spelling, not always counting. And that followed me from middle school through bachelor, associate’s bachelor’s, and Master’s. I didn’t know if I’d be able to finish school or find a find a career that would highlight my strengths. And I had four majors, I went to five universities. And it wasn’t until I took a social work class where I’m like, Wow, this all makes sense is the first class I’ve ever taken, that everything makes sense. And here I am now doing what I love to do. What I know is life changing for the individuals that received that help.
HR:
You have any particular cases you’d like to tell us about?
SS:
Oh, all of them. Um, so when I first started this job, we were I started during COVID. And we were all virtual. And I have my first virtual group. And this job is with adults, my in my private practice and how I usually work with adolescents. So I’m having a virtual group with adults. And I’m, I have five students. And I have this one student that wants nothing more than to be social. Um, some other students are there because there’s nothing better to do and some other students are there because they’re caregivers maybe made them be there. And there’s one student who just really never wants to take a break. Never wanted to stop learning. It’s like do you want to play a game or go to the next lesson? I want to learn the next lesson just was really interested in learning social skills. And by the end of the session, which was only four, it was four months long, three days a week, a couple hours at a time, by the end of the session, he went from staying in his room all the time, and not interacting with his family to inviting his family members to play games, to watch movies with them, he’ll sit with them at dinner more often. He just his how his mom described it, as he just knows what to do. Now he has the information he’s always wanted, that he never had, and is more comfortable using it because we practice a lot in group. And that’s worth everything.
HR:
That’s great, great stuff. Great stuff. You know, we’re always telling our interns here at different brains. If you can find something you love doing, you’re good at doing or want to be good at doing. And you can learn how to make a living at it. And you can also help other people. That’s the Holy Grail. That’s what you tried to do.
SS:
Both parents are lawyers. And so when I told my dad, I was like, alright, social work is my choice. It’s my final choice I’m gonna do he goes, you’re never gonna make money, you’ll never be able to support yourself. I go dad, I could be anything else and be alright at it. Or I can be a social worker and be the best. And so I said, I’m going to do what I’m going to be the best at what I’m going to enjoy. And he couldn’t be happier that I made this choice. It has led me in to all the right places. And I’ll never forget that conversation.
HR:
What a great, great story. That’s, that’s really good stuff to share. Tell us more about Goodman Jewish Family Services of Broward County in general.
SS:
Okay, yeah, totally. We have lots of different programs. One of our largest programs is the Holocaust survivor Assistance Program. We still serve hundreds of survivors here in Broward County through in home aid, food clothing companionship. We have a financial assistance program. And like I said before, most of our services, you don’t have to be Jewish to to seek help through us. We have financial services, that’s emergency funding. So we help people with you know, mortgage that they can’t make or rent or an electric bill or medical bill, not maybe we only have to help them one or two times for them to get back on their feet. Um, and so we do that we have a domestic violence program where we counsel and aid individuals who are in domestic abuse relationships, either still in their abusive homes or that have recently or not so recently have left their homes. We have a the behavioral health of Broward County, which is a therapeutic group with who serves all ages. And there is a sliding scale and lots of grants for many people can receive free therapy services. We have a kosher food pantry. Here in Broward County, we serve hundreds of families. The need has gone up significantly since COVID families who never thought that they would need help need help. So a lot of our donors in the past have come to us now because they need our services. And we have a clothing pantry where it’s kind of like walking into a department store and there’s children’s clothes and men’s and women’s and all for all types of and they come in there with a shopping bag. And the only difference is there’s no checking out there’s no cash register, they come in, they receive the clothes that they need maybe for an interview or, you know, they’re at home. They lost a lot of weight during COVID They gained a lot of weight during COVID and aren’t don’t have clothes that fit them anymore. You know, we let them come in and find clothes for themselves and their families. I think that’s it. Yeah.
HR:
And where exactly are you located?
SS:
Our office is on the David Posnack JCC campus and on South Pine Island and Sterling and Davey.
HR:
Okay. And where can people learn more about all of your services.
SS:
I you can go to our website, JFSBroward.org or end if you want more information about Joshua’s Path, you can email me at Joshuaspath@JFSBroward.org.
HR:
JFSBroward.org. Okay. That’s great stuff. Do you do any teaching also.
SS:
So our BOOST program is social skills teaching, like it’s social skills classes, with the community exploration component attached to it. That’s what we’re doing for now. We also have monthly seminars that are free virtual. We do information or for all services for anyone in the community. And we also have an online resource directory where we post events, and we have resources for the whole neurodivergent community in Broward. And that’s the Broward Jewish ability Alliance website.
HR:
And I know you have nothing else to do, but it sounds like you should be also in your spare time teaching at a university. Because you’re a very good teacher.
SS:
This is the topic that I enjoy most people like what do you read? And like, I read about work.
HR:
Are you writing any books or anything?
SS:
No, and when I say read, I mean listening to audiobooks, because I still don’t love reading or writing.
HR:
Or you just bring up a very interesting point because people think that reading, you have to sit and read. But you can also listen. And it’s the same way I tell people, people think that writing like writing a book, you have to sit down at a keyboard. But actually, the way like I wrote my book as per tools, as I just dictated into my iPhone, and then the computer would type it in. There’s all kinds of new modern technologies that do that where, you know, your brain uses different parts when you’re speaking, than when you’re listening. And it uses different parts if you’re typing or handwriting or dictating. And when I would get stuck on a scene when I wrote the square root of two movie, I would handwrite a scene and then I would dictate a scene then I would type it the same scene. But there’s like three different scenes because your brains go in different places and everything.
SS:
I would need someone like Emily to keep my thoughts in order
HR:
Emily would be great, she’s great.
SS:
She’s the best. She is such a go getter. She’s has so much energy,
HR:
Very inspirational to our interns and everybody over here she, she
SS:
Solu Gala, she’s great. She speaks very highly of your whole production. She’s like, you know, at Different Brains. They have… I’m like, Well, they’ve got their stuff together more than I do.
HR:
I’m big on cultures and in the culture that you’re in, and the culture that I’m in, it gets very easy if you just approach that everybody’s brain is a little bit different. You know, forget the labels for men and everything else, unless they’re helpful and so forth. But what I mean is, is if you’re a teacher, and the student in the first row is blind, it’s not going to do any good to write on the blackboard. And that’s all it is. It’s just a little more nuanced. Like, how does that person’s brain taken in? That’s why this interview with all the great information you’re given us, it’ll be video. It’ll be audio. There’ll be a transcript of it anyway, your brain takes it in. It’ll be available like that.
SS:
I love the the accessibility.
HR:
Now for those of our audience who might want to volunteer to help out what’s the best way to do that?
SS:
You can if you’re interested in volunteering with Joshua’s Path email me and Joshuaspath@JFSBroward.org. Um, we email me anyways, because I’ll connect you with the volunteer coordinator at any of the other programs if you’re interested.
HR:
That’s great. That’s great stuff. Is there anything we haven’t discussed that you’d like to discuss today?
SS:
On a personal note, I’m Lori Bitar, introduced us via email maybe 10 years ago, many many years ago as soon as I became a professional She and her tutors helped me after finishing Lindamood-Bell because she had some knowledge of it helped me get through school.
HR:
That’s great. And how can people get in touch with Lori Bitar?
SS:
I see her on Facebook now. She’s not in Florida anymore. She moved away.
HR:
Okay. All right. Well, it’s a virtual world now
SS:
It is, which is both good and bad.
HR:
Well, thank you so much. Sam, is there any other information you’d like to give our audience before we adjourn?
SS:
February is Jewish disability awareness and inclusion month. And we have some events that we’re putting on that are all inclusive events. And I would like to share that with you. So February 9, from seven to eight on the JCC campus, we’re going to be doing a yoga and Reiki 30 minute sessions, where you’ll be able to do yoga at a reduced pace, as well as have an instructor coming around to help you and then have a have the opportunity to get some Reiki done, which is you don’t have to touch so it’s COVID friendly. And we’re going to do small groups of 10. So that there’s enough space and everyone gets individualized attention. On February 13. We’re having a Super Bowl watch party, that it’s going to be like a drive in movie style where you can drive up we’ll have a big, big screen outside a good bring your families and everyone’s invited and we’ll have the Super Bowl playing. And then on February 17, you have we have one of someone who’s very familiar with different brains coming to speak for us, Haley moss. I’m defining neurodiversity I guess Oh, I think the last thing I didn’t say I just said it quickly is all of our services are free. Through Joshua’s Path so that’s a biggie,
HR:
That’s a biggie. Well, Samantha, it’s been a pleasure to have you here. Keep up the great work and Joshua’s path and JFS and come back to visit us again soon. Thank you so much.
SS:
Thank you, Hackie. Have a good one.
