Work Opportunities Unlimited (WOU) provides a variety of services to prepare individuals with disabilities for success in the workplace, including social and emotional development activities, volunteering, on-the-job training, and job placement and retention. With support from WOU’s Laconia, NH team, including Career Resource Specialist Cierra Dame, Christy has had a fabulous year at WOU learning skills at many volunteering sites and making new friends!
Christy was referred to WOU for supported employment services, as she had some previous work experience. After meeting with Christy and learning more about her experience, the WOU team determined that she could benefit from some social development activities before jumping back into the workplace, as she struggled with social anxiety and selective mutism. Cierra, who has supported Christy since June 2025, shares, “Christy is a wonderful individual who will make you laugh and smile. When Christy first started with WOU, she did not talk to people, always had her head down, and she was very quiet when she did talk. Christy would only respond with a one-word sentence and head nods. Sometimes she wouldn’t answer at all. It was very hard to know what she liked, what her hobbies were, and what she would like to do while participating in our services.” Rick, one of Christy’s previous Career Resource Specialists, says, “Our goal was to help her open up more and get adjusted to going into the community and interacting with peers.”
The WOU team paired Christy with two other individuals for service time in the community. Four days per week, the small group volunteers together and meets at local libraries to practice social interactions with fun activities. For example, Cierra created cue cards for the groupmates to take turns roleplaying as customer and employee, learn ways to ask for assistance, and practice common greetings. Cierra also works with Christy one-on-one for a couple of hours each week, supporting her while volunteering, or reading helpful articles with her about body language and etiquette. She’ll pause reading to answer Christy’s questions or demonstrate how different non-verbal communication behaviors – like smiling at a person when asking, “How are you?” versus staring at the floor, or making eye contact and nodding instead of crossing one’s arms and looking away – can be perceived by others during social interactions.
Working with her small group has helped Christy overcome her shyness as her social skills have blossomed. She became best friends with one of her groupmates, Laurie, who is talkative and outgoing when she warms up to a new acquaintance. Their relationship was the start of Christy opening up – she began smiling, laughing, and even making jokes in Laurie’s presence, a huge jump in Christy’s character. Cierra says, “When Christy and Laurie are in service together, they are inseparable! They are always making jokes, working together periodically on tasks while volunteering, and making conversation at lunch. It is amazing to see Christy light up and talk.”
Christy practices socialization and other useful job skills while volunteering at eight locations in her community! She helps clean at a local fire department, horse stables, and the historical museum. She socializes with the cats and tidies at the Humane Society. She uses her sewing, stitching, and knotting skills to make lap fidgets and weighted stuffed animals for patients at the Concord Hospital – Laconia. She volunteers at a summer lunch program for students in the community. Christy’s favorite place to volunteer is at the Salvation Army Thrift Store, where she cleans, bags customers’ purchases, hangs clothes, organizes displays, and adds new items on the sales floor. The location has welcomed WOU clients for over five years, and the patient and kind manager, Megan, has been instrumental to helping Christy come out of her shell. With time and encouragement from Cierra and the Salvation Army team, Christy has grown more comfortable greeting and interacting with people. Cierra shares, “Megan came up with the idea of Christy bagging at the register to work towards her goal of socialization, gives her tasks and asks if she would like to do it or do something else, and waits for a response without asking another question.” Now, Christy speaks for herself, asks for tasks, and completes them with a sense of humor that her coworkers and Cierra appreciate. For example, when organizing the shoe section, she may crack jokes about wearing the super high heels or outlandishly colorful slippers.
Christy is happy to have learned and grown so much through her small group, her volunteering experiences, and the support of the WOU team. She and Cierra have begun to search for job placements in fields that interest her, like working in retail or with animals. She confidently places her coffee order at Dunkin’, a recent development in her journey. Christy says, “I like WOU. I like being able to go out every day and the nice people. I like the Director Jamie, and the CRSs Cierra, Rick, and Jill as I see them most. I like my friends Laurie and Ryan that I see almost every day. I feel good that I am able to talk to people and that I am comfortable with talking with people now.” Cierra is thrilled for Christy, sharing, “Everyone who knows Christy gives her compliments on how far she has come and how great she is doing. Christy has taken such huge strides within her last year here thanks to the help of the Salvation Army, the WOU Laconia Team, and her groupmates. We are all so proud of Christy and cannot wait to see what the future brings for her!”
