CLEVELAND — October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and CVS Health in Cleveland has created a program for students to learn workforce skills.

What You Need To Know

  • Students from Orange High School come to the mock CVS every other week and learn different tasks

  • Less than 50% of Ohioans, ages 18 to 64, who are living with a disability currently have a job

  • Christine Noy, the transition coordinator at Orange High School who helps lead this program, expressed that she wants the students to be able to use these skills in the real world one day

Students from Orange High School come to the mock CVS every other week and learn different tasks. Mark Harbath, one of the students, explained some of what he’s learned.

“Some of the stuff I’ve learned is how to use a cash register, how to interact with people,” he said.

Christine Noy, the transition coordinator at Orange High School who also leads this program, expressed that she wants the students to be able to use these skills in the real world one day.

“This is part of their job skills, vocational training to get them ready as they transition from high school to adulthood and get ready for competitive employment in the community,” she said.

Noy said that she feels like she won the job lottery getting to help the kids learn.

“It’s a safe space for us to practice and make mistakes and to build those skills so that when they do exit and are looking for employment that they’ve already had real authentic experiences,” she said.

Less than 50% of Ohioans, ages 18 to 64, who are living with a disability currently have a job. Programs like this can help change that number. 

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