The Youth's Viewpoint
True student-focused planning processes and strategies help the youth and team engage in a conversation about adult life goals and visions. This avoids predetermination for the youth into specific programs or career fields strictly because they have a disability.
There are many tools available to assist professionals with helping youth find their voice and focus on identifying goals for their adult life. They can include activities like Dreamboarding or Visioning where youth are asked to create multimedia presentations about their dreams or visions for their adult life - what they dream or hope for. Charting the LifeCourse has several tools and processes to help youth focus on their goals and adult life too.
Ultimately, as professionals our job is to create a welcoming and positive space for youth to explore their aspirations for adulthood. However, it can be helpful to also ask the youth open-ended questions about their visions and dreams, interests, preferences, and even initial goals to better understand why they see these as goals for themselves. If the team can better understand "why" youth choose certain goals, we may be able to help them refine them.
