Nonprofits ask for city support in ’08 budget
Excerpts from an article by Jon Savelle, Issaquah Press staff reporter
The Issaquah Press, Wednesday, November 7, 2007
“A year ago, when nonprofit organizations came before the City Council to request funding, some got a skeptical reception. We’ll fund you, the council said, but we need better data on how you are spending the money.
This was true for the DownTown Issaquah Association, which last year asked for a roughly 30 percent increase in its funding, and for AtWork!, a 30 year old Issaquah service that trains and employs people with developmental disabilities. The latter had asked for $28,000 – up from $5,000 for 2006 – to help the organization weather a change in the market for its products and services.
Things are different this year. At the council’s Oct. 29 meeting to consider 2008 spending priorities, where local nonprofits again submitted their grant requests, their clear improvements got the attention of council members.”
“For AtWork!, Chief Development Officer Jane Kuechle submitted a request for $30,000. That’s up from last year, but this time more than half the money will be used to refurbish the restrooms in the sheltered workshop, to replace siding and gutters and to replace a ventilation unit.
The organization continues to adjust to changes in the job market while realighning its own mission, Kuechle said. Rather than simply provide a sheltered workplace for people with disabilities, the aim now is to integrate them into the larger workforce while opening the AtWork! facility to able-bodied workers.”
People With Disabilities Face Uncertain Path to "Real" Jobs
By Maureen O'Hagan, Seattle Times staff reporter
The Seattle Times, Sunday, August 19, 2007
Aleta Hursh is 31 years old but has never held what most would consider a real job.
Born
with cerebral palsy, the Kirkland woman can't talk. Her limbs jerk
involuntarily, so she can't hold heavy or fragile objects. Two days a
week, she sorts white paper from colored at a recycling center known as
a sheltered workshop, where people with disabilities can get a taste of
the working life in a supportive setting.
The
job is well beneath Hursh's mental abilities. But like many people with
serious disabilities, she hasn't had an opportunity to do much more.
Once
viewed as progressive, sheltered workshops are now seen by some as
outmoded, places where people with disabilities are segregated from
society and relegated to lives of stagnation. The pay is low, averaging
just $1.82 an hour, and the challenges are few. Some question whether
people are really working or just killing time, and whether the
workshops are just another example of discrimination.
Washington is the first state to adopt a revolutionary policy aimed at changing that.
The
Working Age Adult Policy, which took effect last year, aims to
transform the lives of thousands of people with disabilities. It
requires adults who receive services funded by the state Division of
Developmental Disabilities to be on a "pathway to employment," or have
a job out in the community that pays a living wage.
"This
is the next great civil-rights movement in our country," said Chris
Brandt, chief executive of Issaquah-based AtWork!, a nonprofit that
serves people with disabilities.
Other
states are looking to Washington for advice, said Ray Jensen, director
of the King County Developmental Disabilities Division. "Other states
have it as a goal or a value statement, but we're the only state that's
actually put it into policy."
While
good jobs and living wages can hardly be criticized, the policy hasn't
been universally embraced. Because the policy has placed a priority on
work, some popular programs have been cut back. These programs provided
activities, but they also offered respite for families who care for
loved ones with disabilities, which can be just as important. Then
there's the looming question: What about those who are simply too
disabled to comply?
Hursh is wary herself. She pointed to a word on a board she uses to communicate.
"Scared."
"Real" Jobs
On
paper, the new policy seems simple. It requires organizations such as
AtWork! to submit a written plan describing the steps each client will
take to get a job — the individual's "pathway to employment." The
organizations, which receive government funding, provide services to
move clients along that path.
What
counts as a "pathway" isn't defined. It could involve teaching the
client a specific skill, training him to get to work on time, or
teaching him how to ride the bus.
As
for the jobs themselves, Linda Rolfe, director of the state Division of
Developmental Disabilities, said there is one key requirement: that
they be real.
"I don't want them shuffling bolts from one cabinet to another," she said.
Clients
who refuse to at least try to get a job risk losing a lot of their
government benefits. But there's no deadline to find a job, and
officials recognize it might take years for some people.
When
the client is successful, the employer, not the government, pays the
worker's salary. Some say the policy could save money in the long run
by getting people into the work force and off government programs. But
the impetus was just as much philosophical.
"I argued for it because I want people to be valued in their community," Rolfe said.
For
AtWork!, which serves more than 230 clients, the new policy came at a
time of uncertainty. For the three decades that it has been involved in
commercial enterprises, the nonprofit has survived on a combination of
donations, government funds and contracts with private businesses that
needed light assembly, packaging or envelope stuffing. But over the
past few years, that work has dwindled, either because of the Internet
or because businesses were sending the work overseas.
The slowdown, along with the new policy, led AtWork! to take a hard look at itself.
Brandt
said the organization saw that people in the workshops weren't always
progressing, that some workers were earning as little as $5 a month,
and that many people had stagnated at the same job for years, if not
decades.
"When your goal is to help people be independent and productive, that isn't cutting it," she said.
The
agency decided it was time to change. In the past year, AtWork! has
closed two of its three sheltered workshops. Now all workshop clients,
including Hursh, are consolidated in the Issaquah recycling center,
where their working hours have been reduced.
A loss of options?
Not everyone is happy about the new state policy.
At
a recent support-group meeting in Bellevue, parents of adults and teens
with serious disabilities passed around a letter from AtWork!
describing the changes. They also discussed cuts in other programs.
As
a result of the new policy, for example, a program called Community
Access — which used to take adults with disabilities on outings — is
now limited to people 62 and older.
The
Working Age Adult Policy hasn't given people with disabilities more
options, these parents complained — it's given them fewer. Some parents
fear they may have to quit their jobs so they can care for adult
children whose programs have been reduced.
Some
have sons and daughters who can't talk and have no alternate means of
communication. One has a daughter who is blind, autistic,
developmentally disabled and has seizures. Others said their adult
children couldn't understand what a paycheck was, much less appreciate
a "living wage."
Parent Karen
McNerney said her daughter is 22 but has the abilities of a 2-year-old.
She's nonverbal and has to wear a protective helmet and arm restraints
because she regularly hits herself. Recently, McNerney was instructed
to connect her daughter with an agency to begin the job search.
"They
told me this with a straight face," she said, explaining that her
daughter would need one, if not two, job coaches with her at all times
— if she could even focus on work instead of self-harm.
For most of these parents, a job seemed ridiculous.
"If we can get her toilet-trained, we'll be doing good," one mother said.
Many of them believe their children are too disabled to work. Yet they feel pressured.
The
attitude, said parent Ron Ralph, is "if you aren't on board, you aren't
recognizing the potential of your child. It's almost messianic."
Jensen, the King County official, said he understands the concerns.
"I'm
not there with them 24 hours a day and the emotional side of that," he
said. "But the worst thing you can do by giving them a chance is it
doesn't work out. If you don't give them a chance you'll never know.
Nor will they."
Searching for Ideas
Hursh took her first step on the path to employment earlier this
summer, when a group of supporters, including her father, the manager
of her group home and a job coach from AtWork!, met with employment
consultants to talk about job possibilities.
They
began with a discussion of her work history, loosely defined. She took
out the trash years ago at school, her father said. She cleans her
room, the group-home manager said. She did a little volunteer work
delivering gifts at a hospital, the job coach said. And then there's
the paper-sorting.
Hursh's
strengths came next: She is observant, has a good memory, and is
persistent and creative, the group agreed. She's also compassionate to
the point of being an advocate for friends who need help.
Then
came the hard part: the job ideas. How about working at the airport
with the Transportation Security Administration, one person suggested.
Or offering food samples at Costco? Or delivering interoffice mail?
The
consultants have learned to be creative. They and others shared stories
about the seriously disabled man who got a job at a petting zoo
collecting eggs and watering the plants. And the man who got a job
sweeping up at a factory — something other employees didn't like to do
— that helped reduce injuries caused by slipping on messy floors. And
the woman hired by a pretzel maker to hand out free samples from her
wheelchair.
But by the end of the meeting, the group seemed no closer to finding Hursh a job — which shows why this is so hard.
She
can't feed herself and must rely on public transportation, so
practically speaking, she can work only before or after lunch, not
both. Because of her involuntary movements, she can be slow and
sometimes breaks things. She's also worried about working without the
help she gets at the workshop.
At the end of the session, she pointed again to a word: "Scared."
Documents Left for Recycling Become Identity Theft Target
By Jamie Soukup, Issaquah Press, August 15, 2007
The
next time you bring recycling to AtWork! recycling center — or any
other recycling center, for that matter — be sure you're not putting
yourself at risk for identity theft.
AtWork!
is a local program that provides employment and job training for people
with developmental disabilities. The program has been operating a
recycling center since 1983.
The
center at 970 Seventh Ave. N.W. is staffed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
weekdays. However, the public can drop off recycling at any time. And
it is during some of the unstaffed hours when trouble occurs.
On
July 28, Issaquah Police called Eric Hallberg, AtWork! Director of
Commercial Enterprises, to inform him that somebody reported seeing
boxes of confidential material left in the recycling yard.
"The
police came to the center and we determined that there were 70 to 80
file boxes of confidential material that were actually from a law firm
from Seattle," Hallberg said.
The
documents contained legal depositions and medical depositions, he said.
It took him and three police officers about 45 minutes to transfer all
the boxes into a secure, indoor location. A lawyer from the firm was
able to pick up the material July 31.
A
similar situation happened at the recycling center in May. A number of
documents from the Department of Labor and Industries were discovered,
containing Social Security numbers and other confidential information.
The
recycling center is an open-air facility where documents are not
secured. Despite posted signs warning against dropping off confidential
information, AtWork! employees continue to come across information that
shouldn't be there.
"We have
people who will continually come and leave canceled checks or bills
that have personal information. It happens almost daily," Hallberg said.
"We're
not a confidential shredder of documents," said Jane Kuechle, AtWork!
Chief Development Officer. "It's certainly welcome when people drop off
materials, and we hope that people continue to do that, but they need
to be careful about their confidential information."
When
confidential information is discovered, it is the policy of AtWork!
employees to destroy it immediately by shredding it. But Kuechle
pointed out that employees might not always catch such documents.
AtWork! and QFC Partnership Recognized
Bellevue Reporter, July 11, 2007
Angela
Jenkins holding the award plaque presented to QFC Angela Jenkins,
District Recruiter for QFC has partnered with AtWork! to make community
job opportunities available for people with disabilities. QFC and Ms.
Jenkins were honored at the Alliance of Eastside Agencies (AEA)
luncheon, June 7th.
AEA
conducts a yearly awards program that honors a business, elected
official, volunteer, staff and youth for their dedication and vision in
the human services arena. This year AtWork! nominated QFC in the
business category.
In August
of 2006, Angela Jenkins read about AtWork! and its service to place
individuals with disabilities in community jobs. Taking her cue from
her company’s focus on diversity and inclusion, she stopped by our
Bellevue Operations Center to learn more and talk about how QFC could
partner with AtWork! and make community opportunities available for
people with disabilities.
Angela
has helped AtWork! navigate through the QFC employment application
process, breaking through red tape that in the past had posed a
barrier. AtWork!’s partnership with QFC has resulted in numerous
opportunities for individuals to engage in job trials, provided good
connections with store managers who are open to employing people with
disabilities, and has resulted in the placement of one individual with
disability right out of her high school transition program. Angela’s
intervention made it possible for Nancy to have a job as a Courtesy
Clerk at a local QFC and, in her words, she feels like she is “part of
a team.” Nancy is making money and is a part of a supportive and caring
workplace. Because of Angela Jenkins and QFC’s commitment to community,
Nancy has experienced success and inclusion in her community.
Education & Employment — School to Work Program
