Transcript - slide 8

The second person is Judy, [who] also worked at the workshop. However, she would not go into the workshop in winter. She would not leave her house. She was afraid to do that. When she did, she was so soft-spoken that you could hardly hear her speak. [Judy] did have an interest in writing poetry. Our self-employment supervisor hooked her up with Dan Wilkins, who sells advocacy t-shirts. Dan agreed to let her sell shirts on consignment, and she began doing that.

She enjoyed [it] so much that when she went out to sell her shirts, she would stand out in front of her booth. I remember one time there was a seminar at a community college, and there were students walking by. She would actually approach the students about buying shirts. And this experience has made such a change in her personality. She is very outgoing now. You can hear her when she speaks. She is still soft-spoken, but you can understand her when she speaks. She has to speak louder if she wants to sell her shirts. She is selling those at conferences, [and] has had special orders from groups across the state for large orders.

[Judy also] has a job at a local imprinting shop. She works there, and they have agreed to sell a sweatshirt that she designed herself. For her, both personally and professionally, self-employment has been very beneficial. She had a PASS Plan to purchase inventory to build up her stock, and she was successful at that and has paid that back. She has expanded her business to include an embroidery machine and is selling tote bags. I believe she wants to do more work designing her own shirts using her own poetry to put on shirts to market.

Those are two examples of how our system-change has affected people. There are many more. But those two are representative of how things have grown in Allegan County. Thank you for listening.