Transcript - slide 3

The other thing that we did was to reorganize our agency in terms of personnel. We had staff performing as supports coordination, or case management function, divided all over the organization. We pulled them together into one unit so that they could function as a group. And, it was easier then, to help people understand the vision and implement that vision when they were working as one unit. We also put our vocational services, or work services staff, into one unit. Again, they were spread out into different functions. Then, we developed an overall plan for how to reach our vision. We had 16 or 17 different tasks that we thought that we had to do, including a specific goal of increasing the number of people working in the community.

However in 1996, we made a very bad decision in announcing that we were going to close the workshop. At that point, we only had one workshop left. The administration, at that time, felt that things were not moving as quickly as they thought they should. [They] made a decision to announce that they were closing the workshop. At that time, they set a goal date of two years, but there were still over 90 people in the workshop that we did not have answers for. As you can imagine, there was a great community outcry against that decision. I would never announce that we were going to close anything.

At that point, the agency regrouped, started working with one person at a time to help them with their community work goals. That is probably the most important thing that we learned along the way. That is the way to do it: to work with one person at a time helping them to reach their goals. So, we continued on in that way in 1996. In April 2004, we quietly closed the workshop. There were six people left: two people wanted to retire, a couple of people started their own businesses, and one person is still looking for work. But at that point, we closed the workshop with no hoopla [and] no outcry. It just went away, because we didn't need it anymore. At this point, we have one day program left with 24 people, and that number continues to decrease as people get connected to the community [i.e. employment].