As our Cystic Fibrosis patients start to climb into adulthood and face having to provide for themselves, it can be largely intimidating to try to figure out what is going to be something they will enjoy doing yet allow for the time-consuming process of doing treatments, medications, and even hospitalizations. Being an elementary school teacher may be your child’s dream, but keeping themselves healthy as they are surrounded by children in an atmosphere that is a haven for germs naturally may not be a good idea. Nevertheless, we aim to inspire our children to make the correct choices for themselves. If they truly want to be that schoolteacher, then, by all means, let’s find ways to make that a reality for them.
This is where Career Coaches can become your best friends, as parents and as patients. Engaging our coaches from early on can give our children a chance to see what working for a particular field might really be like. It may deepen the desire to become workers in those fields, or it may awaken them to try something different. We pair our coaches with either parents of young patients or adult patients themselves based on experience with a particular age group, of course the career field they have the most experience in, and number of recipients our coaches are working with.
Our coaches are fully funded by grants made possible by the Appreciate Every Breath Foundation™, many even volunteer their time, so it comes at no cost to the parents or patients. It is a one-on-one session, either monthly or bi-weekly, via Skype™ using Microsoft Teams that all of our coaches are trained on and patients have chat access to their coaches 24/7 through the same program for 6 months total. Coaches are able to bring their participants to work with them in a virtual setting, showing them the intricacies of their day to day work lives. Coaches can answer questions, work through challenges, and provide information about real internships and positions available to get them started.
There are many reasons why a patient would wish to change their coach, one of the biggest reasons would be that they did not find the work focused on interesting to them. And that’s okay! We’re here to help our patients find work that they enjoy in addition to the flexibility to care for themselves. If a recipient wishes to change their coach for any reason, they can simply ask for a new coach. Our coaches are fully compensated by the grant for the specified time. Patients are asked to reapply for a new coach once the initial time has passed. This helps us ensure that the funds allocated for these grants are fully utilized.
If you are a professional within a career that would provide the flexibility needed to help our patients not only make a living but be able to take care of their health, please consider becoming a coach. We use Microsoft Office 365 to help connect our coaches to our patients utilizing familiar platforms like Skype™ and Teams™.
Become A Career Coach
Join the fight against Cystic Fibrosis today and help shape the minds of young people as they seek to establish a career where they can become self-sufficient and independent contributors to the workforce.
If you have a career that you believe would be a great fit for our patients to think about and would like to apply, we encourage you to do so below.