CRP-RCEP

Highlights

Disabled learn about changing prospects in work, life sharing

Area residents with developmental disabilities and their loved ones gathered Tuesday evening in Oil City to learn about the changing opportunities in employment and in life sharing. A packed dining hall at the Knights of Columbus was treated to the informational forum organized by the Venango County Mental Health/Mental Retardation administration.
“We know 60 to 70 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed — the data says that they want to work,” said Valerie Brooke of Virginia Commonwealth University. “There is a whole untapped labor force. We really have a service to sell.”

Brooke, the night’s first featured speaker, stressed the importance of making competitive employment the goal for disabled people.

“The idea is that it’s not about going into a day center and getting ready and getting ready for employment,” she said. “The people have to be looked at in terms of what they can do — what they can deliver — and should be considered for employment first. That’s not happening — here or around the county.”

While some progress has been made, Brooke said it is important to encourage communities to continue to push for more change. “We’ve got to keep motivating,” she said. “We are doing some good stuff, but who are the next five people going into competitive employment? That’s the goal.”

Brooke shared some of the latest ideas for helping more disabled people enter the job market. “For a lot of folks, they graduate high school and then sit at home because the transition (into the job market) is difficult,” Brooke said.

She added that new legislation may make it possible for some disabled people to qualify for paid employment before they leave high school. This may lead to more prepared workers leaving the structure of school and heading into the job market.

“We see (the improvements) as an evolution of change,” she said. “It’s important to keep it moving forward.” The goal for Brooke is an “assumption of employability” for disabled people. “We’re all community,” she said. “We’re not separate and segregated.”

One audience member may have exemplified that better than anything Brooke could have expressed with words. Dolly Bechtel, of Oil City, received an award at the forum from the MH/MR for her 10 years of competitive employment at the Oil City Presbyterian Home.

Bechtel’s supervisor, Christina Barrow, was on hand to praise her long-time employee. “Everybody lovers her,” Barrow said. “She comes to work everyday with a smile on her face.” Barrow recalled that once a fire occurred at the home and Bechtel remained calm, used the training she was given and helped alert the staff, residents and fire department. “Thank you very much,” Bechtel said emotionally as she received the award.

Also at the meeting, Dana Olsen, of the Pennsylvania Office of Developmental Programs, delivered a speech highlighting recent advances with the life-sharing program. Life-sharing hosts live with — and provide support in their homes — for disabled people, said Olson, who compared the program to foster care.

He said $10 million have been put into an initiative this year to help increase the amount of life-sharing homes throughout the state. "Life sharing costs considerably less than community homes,” Olsen said. “But more importantly, satisfaction (for the residents) is higher.” He indicated that these living situations are becoming more common, but that many families are still wary.

“It doesn’t mean that someone is taking your family member away,” he said. “(The families) can be the driving force in this whole thing.”

Olson added that families can be instrumental in picking a living-arraignment for their loved ones. “The best thing is to talk to the people who really do it,” he said. “They don’t do it for the money — it isn’t that good folks. There may be someone out there who really wants to share their life with your loved one — and that’s OK.”

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Fact Sheet: Quality Indicators for Competitive Employment Outcomes & Indicator Form

Competitive employment provides the individual with a disability a real job, the potential for benefits, and the dignity that arises from gainful employment. Both the employer and the individual with a disability benefit since the employer gets a good worker, and the individual earns a competitive wage. Family, coworkers, and the general public are able to see the worker with a disability in a fully competent role in the workplace and community.

Read the entire Fact Sheet

National Certificate in Employment Services Recipients in Region III

Visit this page to view the total Region III individuals receiving a National Certificate in Employment Services, http://www.crp-rcep.org/certificate/completed.cfm