2nd Quarter Spotlight Award Winner
Matthew Brookshire
Employment Consultant, at LifeDesigns, Inc.
Indiana APSE is proud to announce the recipient of our 2nd Quarter Spotlight Award.
This award honors an employment support staff who goes above and beyond for individuals every day! The winner of this quarter’s award is Matthew Brookshire an Employment Consultant, at LifeDesigns, Inc. Matt exemplifies the best qualities of being an employment support staff and has been an Employment Consultant for over 20 years supporting individuals with disabilities seeking employment.
His persistence and a great attitude are two strengths he’s had from the beginning of his career. His ability to be caring without diminishing expectations, his focus on meeting both client and employer needs, and his work with support teams to holistically support the individual shine daily. He is dedicated to supporting individuals finding a career and long term employment. The most rewarding aspect of being an Employment Consultant to Matt is helping someone realize their potential and self-worth.
In Matt’s long career he has had many examples of effectively supporting individuals with disabilities in competitive employment. For example, Matthew was able to present to the Monroe County Department heads and assisted an individual with setting up work experience in the Probation Department. This leads to competitive employment that not only meets their employment goal but provides a living wage. This allows the employer to see the abilities and skills of a person and ensure that the employment situation is a match before moving forward with a job offer. This ensures not only competitive employment but ensures employment goals and employee needs are being met.
Matt uses wonderful techniques for communicating with employers and ultimately making outstanding job matches. By utilizing work experiences, job shadows, job trials, informational interviews, mock interviews, and reaching out proactively to determine employment needs are key aspects for Matt in making outstanding job matches. Determining a match before a job offer is made ensures an educated choice by the job seeker and employer.
It is wonderful to know that Matt has a person’s best interest at heart. He is very encouraging to those seeking employment.
When Matthew was asked, “What is your best piece of advice you could give to someone seeking employment?” He said, “Don't give up. There are many obstacles to overcome, but I feel there is a place in the world for all of us, we just need to find what that is.”
All of us at Indiana APSE and our members are thrilled to have someone like Matt working so hard to support individuals with disabilities who are seeking employment.