Agencies Serving People With Intellectual Disabilities Finding Success With 'Micro-Businesses'

http://articles.courant.com/2011-11-28/news/hc-disabled-jobs-1128-20111125_1_favarh-firewood-crew
By Julie Stagis
In the month since the Oct. 29 snowstorm that damaged countless trees throughout the state and knocked out power for some towns for up to 12 days, The Arc of Farmington Valley's wood-bundling crew has worked nonstop to supply local businesses and residences with packaged firewood.
"We were getting calls left and right. … It was a real motivating factor for the crew," said Stephen Morris, executive director of the organization, which is commonly known as FAVARH. "They took an ordinary job and it allowed people to stay in their homes, which was … really a critical need."
The wood-bundling crew is one of several "micro-businesses" run by FAVARH, known as such because it was originally called the Farmington Valley Association for the Retarded and Handicapped.
FAVARH, like many other organizations throughout the state and nation that help people with intellectual, cognitive and developmental disabilities, has developed in-house, small businesses to provide jobs for those who want to work.
"Small businesses here are how we've responded to the economy," Morris said. "I like to think we're helping to right-size the economy. There aren't jobs for everyone who wants one."
"The folks that we support are the last hired and the first to go," Morris said. "In a down economy, it's even more obvious."
Some clients still work in groups, rolling silverware in restaurants or organizing magazine racks at the grocery store, and others are able to be employed individually, many as cashiers or store greeters. But organizations have found success in creating unique opportunities for those they help.
Hartford's Oak Hill, formerly known as the Connecticut Institute for the Blind, runs the New England Assistive Technology (NEAT) Disability Equipment Center, where used medical equipment is refurbished and sold at a steep discount to people who might be uninsured.
When it started nine years ago, 54 pieces of equipment were sold, according to Vice President Bruce Stovall. Last year, more than 1,500 pieces of equipment were sold.
"We're not just employing people with disabilities, we're helping them," Stovall said.
FAVARH has found success in recent years with a firewood operation, a landscaping crew and with shredding, bulk mailing and scanning businesses.
Last year, the wood crews sold more than 10,000 bundles of firewood to local gas stations and stores. The bundles are sold for $6 each, or $4 each when a store buys 50 or more, with free delivery included. After the storm, the crews sold 2,000 bundles in two weeks.
Using agencies like FAVARH for such services is beneficial to all involved, Morris said.
"It's cost-effective to use FAVARH, and it creates jobs for people with disabilities," he said. "People who use their services are playing a small part in balancing the economy to create jobs for everyone who wants them."
The agencies are finding niches in important jobs that companies sometimes don't want to pay their own staff to do — document scanning, for instance — and are also creating jobs based on their clients' abilities and interests.
At the Arc of Meriden-Wallingford, the Arc Eatery and Dot's Thrift Shop were both born from clients' dreams.
The restaurant was started as a pie-making enterprise years ago because it was hard for the individuals to find jobs in food service and, for many, "it's their real love," according to Pamela Fields, the agency's executive director.
When the agency moved to its 24,000-square-foot facility on Research Drive in Meriden in 2007, the full-scale, state-of-the-art kitchen opened.
The restaurant employs 17 people, has a full menu and operates from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday. And it has "regulars," many from surrounding businesses.
Chef Joe Berg oversees the operation and works with people like Ray Weise to help them reach their goals.
Weise, 21, dreams of going to culinary school and eventually opening his own restaurant.
As recently as 10 years ago, much of the employment at places like FAVARH and the Arc of Meriden-Wallingford consisted of what was called sheltered workshops — generally, piecework from factories where clients would sit in a room and put together nuts and bolts, or whatever the factory needed. At the time, the Meriden Arc had 107 people doing that type of work, according to Fields.
Today, there are 10 people doing piecework there.
"The goal [today] is to get them out in the community," Fields said.
The state Department of Developmental Services, the national Arc and other organizations have started to steer agencies toward getting individuals more independent work, Fields said.
In addition, the economy has forced many of the factories and other businesses that used to employ those with disabilities to either close or cut back.
"Individuals used to be able to get a piece of a job," like only operating a cash register or fryer at a fast food restaurant, Fields said. "A lot have lost jobs because now they're expected to multitask."
When hundreds of people are going for a job, Fields said, people with developmental disabilities have a much smaller chance now because disabled people tend to need "set tasks."
"They look at us, and then at someone who has a family — they're going to hire the person who has a family," said Charles Monti, job developer for Cheshire-based Abilities Without Boundaries.
So the agencies have to get creative, because those they support "want to work," Monti said. "It's gnawing at them."