PathPoint Participants Receive Work Opportunity in Ventura County

Ventura, CA - PathPoint, a local nonprofit that enables individuals with disabilities to work and live as valued members of the community celebrate as local Ventura participants have been given work. For many, this opportunity has been the first of its kind.

A company called Nature Watch reached out to PathPoint participants in hopes of collaborating. If you’re not familiar with Nature Watch, they provide educational kits for children that are used all over the country in various settings. With the excessive demand of supplies ordered – Nature Watch needed to contract out new employees to do this – and the PathPoint participants were eager for the opportunity!

For many of our participants, acquiring a job has been a need – some for months, while others for years. As an individual with disabilities employment can often be a struggle to obtain. This partnership with Nature Watch came as a blessing for many of our Ventura County PathPoint participants.

Mindy Mosher, Assistant Program Coordinator at PathPoint shared “the work gave our participants a great educational experience. The boxes were numbered, corresponding to each different pinecone. I personally was able to help teach one of our participants’ number recognition and counting - skills that she was able to strengthen through this valuable experience.”

“It was also a very rewarding experience because it was the first time some of our participants had earned a paycheck” exclaimed Mindy.

“They had the opportunity to not only learn about the materials, but to also learn work ethic and how their work made it possible for others to learn as well.”

Vice President of PathPoint Ventura, Charles Bloomquist shared that we “focus on teaching pre-vocational skills which helps to prepare the people we serve to gain meaningful employment. Partnering with Nature Watch on the Pinecone project allowed for that meaningful experience as well as the very first paycheck for some of the people that worked on it.”

Eileen Alvarez, Discoveries Program Coordinator in Ventura also attributed this contract as a mutual benefit for both Nature Watch, PathPoint and the participants saying: “ we are so grateful for the opportunity Nature Watch gave us and look forward to encountering similar projects in the future.&rdquo

If you are interested in partnering with PathPoint for employment opportunities for our participants please contact Charles Bloomquist at Charles.bloomquist@pathpoint.org