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Ron and Nancy #4

Ron:  My next example is my friend Matt. He's a pretty unique guy.  I did forget 
in the first two examples that I presented, one important piece both about Donna 
and Steve.  I forgot Steve's diagnosis, which was a severe learning disability. 
But, the most important thing I forgot to tell you about Donna and Steve is that 
both of them have been in their jobs now 2 years and both of them are full time 
employees that have full benefits in those positions. That's an important piece, 
too.  It's not just getting a job. It's not just the traditional job 
development, job assessment and all of that process. It's also the outcome for 
the individual.  Matt fits right into that scenario.

Matt was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Matt is probably one of the most social 
guys I've ever met.  One very difficult part of helping Matt find a job and 
succeed in his life was limiting, and that is he sells himself pretty well with 
the tremendous personality that he has.  Matt really was on the traditional fast 
track within our system.  Again Matt was supported through traditional Medicaid 
day service dollars.  He never was in our sheltered workshop. He bypassed that.  
Again he one of those guys who came out and wanted to go right into the 
community and be involved in sheltered employment.  He also had, which I think 
is very important, a very supportive family situation.  [They were] very 
determined advocates for Matt moving into real life and what Matt was able to 
do.  We have a tremendous partner in our community in Lehigh Valley, 
Pennsylvania. Matt has been at Wegman's now for 5 years.  Matt is a key employee 
in the produce department.  

The reason I say that is that Matt's job isn't just your typical supermarket job 
at Wegman's, it's all presentation.  It's very detailed, it's very complex. Matt 
has taken to it beautifully and is a key employee at Wegman's.  As far as the 
traditional funding, he's now on a follow-along Medicaid day service.  That's 
about the supports he's getting or that he needs.  He's another one of those 
guys who has been at his job for 5 years and is now a full time employee with 
benefits. Wegman's is actually listed as one of the top 100 companies to work in 
the country, and he's found a place.  [This is a] great success story.

Nancy:  The next person I want to talk about is Keith.  We did not do a good job 
over the years of listening to Keith.  He worked in the laundry room of a hotel. 
While he did a very good job and was content with his daily schedule and all of 
that, he would continually talk about he wanted, what he described as a "man's 
job" working in construction.  We met with Keith and kind of backed up to learn 
more about that and figure out from Keith what all that meant to him.

We went to some stores that sell home improvement supplies to see what that 
meant to Keith in different environments as well. It was very clear it meant 
that he wanted to work with other men, building buildings.  One thing that's so 
important is to use those connections you have.  We had closed down a workshop 
and moved into a very small professional business complex.  We decided to 
contact the folks who built that.  They were open to talking with us.  The owner 
happened to have a cousin who had a disability.  We had some sensitivity to what 
that meant in terms of quality of life for people and not keeping people 
segregated and out of their community.  It started out as him saying, "Ok we'll 
try it a week."  The work turned into 2 weeks, then 3 weeks, and before we knew 
it, they were saying, "Where's Keith?  He didn't come in today."  

We knew we had some leveraging ground with them. They hired Keith as one of 
their construction crew, which Keith loved.  It was a wage employment.  We also 
knew Keith had his eye on some of the equipment that they were using around 
there.  We talked to Keith about that and one day during their lunch break, they 
even let Keith ride or drive one of the pieces of equipment.  We met the owner 
and just said, "Ok, if you could purchase a piece of equipment that you think 
would be very, very helpful to you and something that would be in pretty 
continual use what would it be?"  It was a Bob Cat.  

We did market research and that is a piece of equipment that is often leased out 
in that particular area.  Atlanta is a huge growing area.  We talked to Keith 
about what he thought about a Bob Cat and even found one that he could drive and 
tell us what he thought about that.  He thought he would like to own a Bob Cat.  
Keith has purchased a Bob Cat through his ITA.  It was blended funds through 
traditional Medicaid Waiver funding to provide the supports for Keith in the 
Individual Training Account to purchase the equipment.  What I want to stress is  
that you have got to have somebody working in that creative support team, who 
knows the market analysis piece. 

What we had talked to Keith about was leasing out the Bob Cat to other 
businesses. He'd have another means of income. They leased out for about $200 a 
day. We thought, "This is a pretty good income."  What we found is that that's 
actually considered unearned income.  If we had gone that route, Keith's 
benefits would have immediately been dropped, including his medical benefits.  
What we're working at now is a much hirer wage employment salary with this 
company.  

In looking at a partnership, the owner, through the resource ownership, will use 
Keith's equipment. [Keith’s] going to have a 12 month a year salary, not just 
seasonal work. They have the opportunity to use the equipment with Keith 
operating it.  The partnership that will result in Keith getting a bonus, is 
that they will be able to lease out the equipment when they're not using it.  
They'll be a percentage that will go to this guy that Keith's in partnership 
with.  

We could have very easily screwed up Keith's benefits if we had not had someone 
who was very knowledgeable about what all that means.  It can be the least 
interesting aspect of this whole change system, but it is one of the most vital 
pieces to understand how that whole benefit analysis impacts this very creative 
way that we're learning to support people and help them have a living wage and 
again a career path.

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