Arc of Stanly County

Organizational Barrier to Competitive Employment

Many programs that use Section 14c Minimum Wage Certificates are performing center based contract work. These centers were often started with the purpose of having a “safe haven” for people with disabilities. People would be able to work and be productive without risking exposure to the community. A key barrier to competitive employment is the perspective of parents that their adult children are incapable of community work and vulnerable to exploitation in the greater community.

In the late 1980s, the Arc of Stanly County attempted to initiate a change strategy that would allow workshop closure within a three-year period. This change strategy was explained to consumers and their families with very negative results. Some families began a mud slinging campaign in the news. Another group of families broke off into their own agency to make sure their children did not have to go into the community. Other parents expressed helpless dismay. The community was angry that people with disabilities would be put in community workplaces and take jobs away from people without disabilities. The outcry was so large that the agency abandoned the idea of workshop closure.

Strategy to Address Barrier

Staff, consumers, families, funders, and community members have all believed that certain people were unemployable. Therefore, the Arc of Stanly County, Inc. began a slow campaign to create inclusive volunteer opportunities for people with disabilities. This would enable staff to see the difference in individuals when engaged in meaningful work of their choosing. Families would feel safer at allowing “volunteering”, as supervision would be present at all times, and “volunteering” tended to be in places with which the family was comfortable. Funders would learn that goals could be worked on in community volunteer settings. Consumers would begin to experience work environment other that the sheltered site, and would begin to clamor to move out of the workshop. People with no experience in competitive work would be able to “try on” different jobs by volunteering. People might decide a volunteer opportunity was not what they really thought it would be like and that they would rather pursue something else. Finding this out in a volunteer capacity would be better than creating a poor work history with short-term jobs. We believed using a volunteer program would enable more people to become competitively employed and moved off the 14c minimum wage certificate.

Case Example of Organization Change Strategy

The volunteer program proved to be a good solution to begin to break down the real and perceived barriers. Volunteers began working at the hospital folding towels and moving supplies; public and school libraries putting books away; nursing homes helping with activities, visiting individuals without families, calling Bingo; the Department of Social Services shredding paper; the Chamber of Commerce putting together newsletters; Meals on Wheels delivering meals as well as working at nutrition sites; the Community Table (food kitchen for the homeless) serving food, putting ice in cups, and cleaning up; a local barbershop sweeping and dusting; the local animal shelter playing with animals; a local horse breeder exercising horses and taking care of hooves; a day care answering phones, rocking babies, reading to children, and helping with snacks; the local elementary Charter School reading to kindergartners; visiting individuals in the community and washing/walking dogs, etc.

When the position is a volunteer position and would be done by any other volunteer, the individual with a disability is not paid. When the position would normally be done by someone other than a volunteer, the person is compensated (i.e. dog owners pay to have their dogs washed), per Department of Labor regulations.

Individuals with disabilities began looking forward to these opportunities, and even those who initially refused a volunteer activity began to ask to go when they heard their friends talk about how much fun they’d had. People with disabilities began identifying dreams, and acting on those dreams to find competitive work or open their own micro-enterprises. Families saw the difference in the consumer’s behavior, and were pleased and allowed more risk to be taken. Children in the community who were exposed to people with disabilities became very accepting of the adults who were “different”. The community discovered that people with disabilities were people first, not individuals to fear or shun. Several of the volunteer activities were expanded and became full or part time jobs for individuals, or people were hired into jobs as a result of community members learning about the volunteering, such as at the barbershop and a car wash.

Even staff was amazed. At one point, a video had been taken of a consumer working in the community. A long-term staffer walked by the video showing on the TV in the cafeteria, and asked who the consumer was! The consumer’s behavior was so different in the community than in the sheltered site that the staff person was not even aware that the person in the video was the same person she saw in the sheltered site. Staff also came to enjoy the volunteer activities as much as the consumers.

This experience also helped build real inclusive opportunities for people by creating relationships in the community. For example, the Chamber of Commerce calls and asks for a specific person when they need assistance, and other volunteer positions have also developed into opportunities to develop relationships in the community for consumers. In addition, places that are used for volunteering remember the agency and will call the agency when a competitive opening occurrs. Due to this program, people are now employed competitively, have started their own micro-enterprises, and have increased opportunities for inclusive relationships in the community.

Strategies to address barriers: Organizational | Individual

Allegan County Community Mental Health
The Arc of Stanly County, Inc.
Career Design & Development Services
Career Support Systems, Inc.
The Cobb/Douglas Community Services Boards (CSBs)
HPS, Helping People Succeed, Inc.
KFI
Rise, Inc.
Via of Lehigh Valley