WAIV - WorkAbility IV at UC Berkeley

WorkAbility IV is a collaboration between the State Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) and the University of California, Berkeley. WAIV (pronounced, ‘wave’) is designed to connect Cal students with disabilities to alumni with disabilities – who are also consumers of DOR – with internships and career jobs. WAIV strives to bring together employers, UC Berkeley, DOR and the participants, and as such, offers something for each of the stakeholders.

WAIV offers employers a highly educated, experienced and job-ready group of candidates that will help to complete their organizational diversity needs. It also offers employers information related to accommodation, disability awareness training, and serves as a resource for questions regarding the ADA and Human Resource best policies and practices for diversity and inclusion.

WAIV offers UC Berkeley the means to connect with the community and community-based organizations and enhanced employer contact. It also serves as a resource for connecting Cal students with disabilities with DOR.  It offers Cal a chance to uphold its mission of providing public service  and assisting students and alumni through the career decision-making, internship and job search process.

With DOR, WAIV enables DOR to achieve its goal of connecting consumers with meaningful – and lasting - employment.

And with the WAIV participants – the students and alumni with disabilities who are also DOR consumers – it offers assistance on all levels of the internship and career job search and skill development (including career counseling and assessments), it offers a chance to connect with the community, with employers. It refers participants to relevant resources/agencies to help with accommodation, benefits planning and whatever else that might get in the way of finding and keeping a job.

WAIV participants are the living, breathing heart of WAIV. The program endeavors to meet the changing needs of the participants by offering a variety of services including online counseling, an informal mentoring network (previous and present participants and tapping into networks of professionals with disabilities), job clubs, support groups, workshops, recruiting events, job lists and information exchange (community, campus, disability and employer-related), and more.

During the 2008-09 fiscal year, WAIV had 76 people participating in the program. Of those 76, 67 were assisted in employment preparation, 34 were placed in jobs or internships and 13 of those jobs were career jobs that lasted beyond 90 days.

A case study best illustrates some of the work that WAIV does. “Tom*” didn’t think his disability “counted,” since he wasn’t a chair user. He hadn’t connected with hardly any disability-related services for the first couple of years at UC Berkeley. After randomly hearing about WAIV, we met with him and referred him to the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) where he was able to connect with tuition/book assistance.

After his first year, Tom interned with Booz Allen Hamilton. When he got back to campus as a sophomore he connected with Lockheed Martin through a recruiter on campus at a WAIV mentoring event. After flying through the summer, Tom began in earnest to line up his final internship while in school. He was offered a position again with Booz Allen again, and through the Hogan Grant (http://dsp.berkeley.edu/financialassistance.html), he was able to pay for his housing during his internship.

Tom graduated, and after a brief vacation, immediately went to work as a management consultant. The opportunities WAIV presented Tom with substantially impacted his current career. 

Each participant is completely unique, and the services that WAIV provides are tailored to suit each participant. If it doesn’t already exist, and if it will help participants, WAIV tries to create it.  The program is flexible, adapting and changing to new needs, new technologies and new participants and looks forward to serving many more in the years to come.

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*Not his real name