Transcript - slide 4

How do you work with parents who do not want their sons and daughters to work?

Community Living Program
Volunteer
Work on Wheels Program

Interviewer: What if you encounter parents who really do not want their sons or daughters to work. How do you handle that?

Suzanne: That can be very tricky, because of course, we believe that their son or daughter [should work], especially if the son or daughter wants to work. That makes it even more difficult. When we first started our change to totally community based services, we worked from a standpoint of a transitional time from our sheltered workshop or day training program to the community. We explained to the parents, at that time, that there would be a gradual shift. That at some point, they would have to make the choice for their son or daughter. Luckily for us, most everyone came along with us.

Today, we do not have any segregated programs. If someone comes in, and they are adamant that they do not want their son or daughter to work, but they do want our services; we have what we call Community Living. It is actually a three-step program. It offers three different options for people. One is community experience, and again we find that so many people with disabilities have not had the real life experience that we have. For example, making decisions or being able to order from a menu by themselves without having the waitress say "what will he or she have". For instance, we took someone to a movie for the first time not to long ago. We are finding that there is an awful lot of community experience that people need and can have.

The second thing that we do is we offer volunteer opportunities. Not as training for work and not to be confused with work. This is an opportunity for a person with a disability to actually give back to their community; to be around other volunteers who feel that same way. We do things like meals on wheels. We work with the humane society. We work with the library and the hospital. A lot of people are doing that, but our approach again is not work training. Our approach is more learn how the rest of the world gives back to their community.

The third thing we do is called work on wheels. It is a business approach to helping employers solve their problems. We go to the employer in groups of no larger than one to three.

I should explain that our whole community program is offered in ratios of no larger than one to three. You get larger than that, and you are not providing training. You are not providing community experience. You are providing a spectacle to the community.

We provide ["work on wheels"]. We, for example, process all of the bills for a newspaper. The individuals that go there feel that they are working for the Stewart News. This program basically helps the parent gain confidence. In fact, when their son or daughter is in the community, they are actually safe. They are actually secure. They are finding that their sons and daughters are much happier being in the community than being in the sheltered workshop all day. Where there may or may not be work; where there may or may not be something to do. This is an opportunity for them to interact with their peers who have a disability and their peers within the community. It has been a great steppingstone for us. What we find is that after a period of time the parent gets used to the fact that their son or daughter is part of their community. Employment is just the obvious next step.