PreETS Self Awareness and Self Advocacy Training with The IMAGE Center
Clark Bayer was one of our first students to take on our PreETS training program at IMAGE when the program went virtual due to COVID.
Clark is a highly intelligent young man and was always a joy to have in class. It is unique and uplifting to work with a student as motivated and as passionate as he is.
Clark has clear goals for himself and a plan as to how he will achieve those goals. Clark has an interest in engineering projects, which became a great way to showcase his strengths throughout his PreETS training sessions.
Clark also has quite a bit of volunteer and on the job experience, which helped make the PreETS training sessions relatable and realistic for him.
When asked what he learned during the training, Clark stated, “I’ve learned about the laws. I thought the laws were interesting, and how recent they are. It makes you think about history. People with disabilities can live the same as anyone else. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely better than it used to be.”
We hope to see Clark in the future participating in other programs at IMAGE where he can volunteer and share his skills in a mentorship role.
Program Support Specialist Amanda Taylor said “It was wonderful to get to know him as an individual and recognize his potential, which is abundant! We look forward to seeing the wonderful things he will accomplish in his life”!
Learning about how to speak up for yourself and the laws behind disability services is very useful and rather interesting. Often we interact with these services without learning specifically what laws back them, so to learn about the laws in specific shows which ones you can use to help you.
~Clark Bayer, PreETS Student