Representatives of Mecklenburg Open Door, Inc. (Charlotte, NC, USA) and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte provided intensive training to selected professionals in March 2001 as the first step in the Wroclaw pilot program "Assisting Individuals with Disabilities, Mental Retardation and Mental Illness Obtain Employment in the Open Job Market". Following this instruction, the representatives helped to identify the participants who would serve as the first program job coaches.
The selected job coaches received certificates endorcing their participation in the pilot program.

• collecting essential information about the client by assessing their strengths, preferences, abilities and interests,
• collecting information about job vacancies suitable for the client,
• training the client on his/her duties at the job site as well as providing supervision and assistance until the individual can perform the tasks correctly on their own,
• training the client's supervisor and co-workers how best to work with the individual,
• maintaining regular contact with the employer,
• providing interventions as needed (problems with work performance, work accidents, etc.),
• maintaining regular contact with the client's doctor and family,
• monitoring the client's safety going to and from work.