Danny Combs, M.A., BCCS, CAS on LinkedIn: Celebrating Those Who Contribute It was bittersweet yesterday as "Ms… (2024)

The future starts here.Walking into TACT is a wonderful experience. It's full of incredible individuals learning, growing, and discovering. It's also full of tools, loud sounds, weird smells, and sparks. So much fun! It's how learning should be, as it simulates and emulates a real job setting. Too often in educational and training environments, we see that classrooms are a completely different experience than a working environment. That becomes another barrier for our community to overcome as they enter employment.However, the goal of these camps isn't employment, as we welcome younger students and clients into our space. It's for them to explore and discover the seer joy of working with their hands in the skilled trades and let their strengths flourish. TACT - Teaching the Autism Community Trades camps and workshops offer this incredible gateway. We're playing the long game. When young clients discover now how much fun and rewarding this pathway can be, they are more likely to choose it when they're transitioning and employment age. It won't be just Gen Z choosing the trades from here on out; it'll be all future generations. The future starts here...

48

4 Comments

34 for the 34th This July marks the 34th anniversary of the ADA. In the 34 years since the passage of this landmark piece of legislation, lots of progress has been made, which is amazing and should be celebrated!Yet, the unemployment needle for our community has only moved 1%. We can do better. We have to do better.On July 26th, TACT is hosting a job hiring event sponsored by our partners at Saunders Construction. Our goal? Thirty-four people are hired in one day. We’re inviting all our service provider friends to bring your candidates to meet with dozens of hiring businesses. Let’s move the needle together. TACT is creating the opportunity and sharing it with our incredible community because the need is large, and we believe in what we can achieve together. We hope you join us at TACT on July 26th from 9 - 11 am. Here’s the link to sign up!https://lnkd.in/gknYnFvC

51

4 Comments

Equality of OpportunityI am so excited and proud of this incredible and needed event! For service providers and families, this is exactly what we've needed for a long time.Colorado Neurodiversity Chamber of Commerce and Colorado Office of Employment First are joining to get all state agencies together and talking for the first time. There are so many great agencies and opportunities, but they exist in silos without knowledge or communication with and to the other. This event is the start of an opportunity to change that. So, we're calling all state agencies to join us! Let's move the needle forward together.

25

Tool Drive!TACT is so excited and grateful to our partners at Saunders Construction for helping us with a tool drive for our clients. Tools are expensive, and they can wear out. We're hoping our community can come together in July to donate tools to support TACT - Teaching the Autism Community Trades clients!This is a great example of two Englewood businesses (Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce) coming together to support our incredible neurodivergent community. Thank you! Here's a link with the tools we need: https://lnkd.in/g_JtdjNX

25

Scaffolding Learning with Technology When you visit TACT, it's purposefully and consciously set up to simulate a job setting, not just an educational setting. The goal is the equality of opportunity for our incredible neurodiverse community, which means access to the best equipment that is industry standard.The good folks at Miller Electric Mfg. LLC supplied us with state-of-the-art equipment, such as virtual welders. We use this technology in our mobile program and for clients who want to start with it before jumping into the welding machines. Isn't it incredible to be able to authentically differentiate and scaffold learning for each client? That's the way education should be, as each client learns differently, and their educational pathway should be supported. TACT - Teaching the Autism Community Trades is a competency-based program and that idea we started doing almost a decade ago is the way all education is headed. Because it works.

27

CEO is a Lifestyle Just like any day at TACT, I love peeking into our classrooms and training spaces to observe. Last week, during the "Beast Mode Makerspace Camp," I peaked in. One of the young students asked what I do here, and the team told them I'm the CEO. They responded, "Oh, CEO is a lifestyle; what does he really do?" We all laughed, and they didn't like my answer that I do different things every day, from cleaning toilets to speaking at events for advocacy to securing donations to working with Medicaid compliance paperwork. Later, a staff member came up to me and said, you should say leader. It got me thinking. They could have said manager, but they didn't. They said, leader. There is a big difference between management and leadership. Huge actually. I must admit, I'm a terrible manager. I do not like it. But I do like leading. And it was flattering to see the team see that. Watching young children explore making things for the first time is only possible because of a team. Their excitement and joy is possible because of a team. And I'm grateful I get to lead that team.

36

3 Comments

When the Attorney General Awards Your Grads TACT clients are incredible. This TACT - Teaching the Autism Community Trades, which now works at the Metropolitan State University of Denver in the cyber program, was awarded for all these achievements by the Colorado Attorney General, Phil Weiser. Well done! We are so proud!

49

2 Comments

Another Week of CampsWitnessing community happen in front of you is magic. It has always been one of my favorite parts of TACT - Teaching the Autism Community Trades that our clients thrive and discover their passion, and it is clearly visible.As another week of camps comes to a close, I am so grateful to all the clients and families that travel here to experience what we're going to bring all over the country.On the first day, parents don't ask others in line, "What part of town are you from?" They ask, "What state did you travel from?" Awesome. The need is real, and we are so grateful to all who build with TACT!

23

1 Comment

If (when) your kids Google you...Last night, driving home from my daughter's taekwondo practice, she said, "Dad, I googled you." I was a bit surprised, as I had no idea why, so I played along. "Oh yeah, what did you find?" "You actually come up!" We both laughed and ended up having a nice conversation about her friends, their parents, etc. It was nice to see that it made her proud somehow. I guess her friends were talking about their parent's work and how involved they were over the summer with the kids, and that led to "the Google search." I must confess, I felt old as I hadn't Googled myself before, but I can understand why some do. I ended up looking when I got home, which was pretty cool.It got me thinking, though, about the legacy we leave our children and how the things we say and do online really do stay. Apparently, she watched podcasts I've been on, too. I hope that the values I'm trying to model for my kids are apparent not just in the neurodiversity community I love and serve but also in my children, all my children. Engaged in conversation with her on the way home made me happy, and the time is going by so fast. It was a great reminder that our kids are watching, whether we realize it or not.

26

2 Comments