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Nonprofit matches jobs, special-needs workers

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published September 25, 2006

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Berger runs Partnerships With Industry, a 21-year-old nonprofit organization that helps 650 developmentally disabled individuals in San Diego County who are outside the work world looking in.

"Seventy-five percent of people with developmental disabilities don't work," Berger says. "But it's not because they don't want to work. Most of them have never had the chance to work."


PWI primarily hires workers with disabilities related to autism, mental retardation, cerebral palsy and epilepsy. It places them in jobs they can handle, whether it is spending a few hours a day assembling information pamphlets at PWI offices or working under contracts to outside employers.

The work they do is simple and often highly repetitive, but it offers them an opportunity to boost their self-esteem.

These are the people our society has always struggled to accept. Many get separated from the mainstream at very early ages as schoolchildren. And they have a difficult time living normal lives.

"We all have parts of our jobs that we love to do," Berger says. "There's no reason people with developmental disabilities can't have the same experience. That's why we're in business."

Callaway Golf in Carlsbad, Calif., created jobs especially for PWI clients and was pleased by the results.

The company used cotton gloves for assembly-line inspections, but it dispensed with those gloves when they were dirty. One use and the gloves were thrown out.

For several years, eight workers from PWI have been rounding up gloves throughout the plant, washing them and redistributing them.

"It's something you would probably have a hard time finding someone to do," says Dave Oakley, Callaway's senior vice president of operations. "They are not doing mainline assembly work, but our employees know them and they fit in just like our employees. There's no question that we are getting a savings by having these people here, and they seem to genuinely appreciate they're here."

PWI provides on-site work coaches to help make sure the workers understand what the job is and how they need to do it. The job coaches reduce their on-site time as workers show they can perform well on their own.

At Sunroad Automotive, PWI workers do various lot jobs, such as washing and detailing cars.

"It works out really well for us," said Tricia Zulic, Sunroad's human resources manager. "Partnerships With Industry gets job opportunities, these individuals get jobs they might not have and we get work done efficiently in jobs that it's hard to find good people."

Debbie Thomas, 52, has been working for PWI as a cafeteria worker at the University of California San Diego for the past 4 1/2 years. Although she's held jobs off and on, she says her epilepsy has always been a hindrance.

"You never know when you're going to have a seizure," she says.

Thomas says she feels comfortable in the cafeteria, where she helps clean up from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

"The only part of the job I don't like is getting there," she says. Between bus connections and walking, she estimates she spends more than three hours a day commuting.

In jobs at PWI offices, workers might do time-consuming tasks for companies that are as simple as collating documents, doing minor parts-assembly work or making convention badge holders. Qualcomm recently engaged PWI to collate thousands of privacy notifications it was sending to its employees, while Cox Communications has used PWI workers to assemble remote-control units.

Workers are paid based on the volume of work they do. Berger said PWI conducts a productivity analysis to determine how much workers should be paid. He said most earn between $3.50 and $8 an hour for their part-time jobs. (PWI, which obtains most of its funding through state agencies, is exempt from California minimum wage laws.)

Vickie Cap, chief operating officer of PWI, says that an in-house snack store helps the workers learn simple job tasks such as customer service, money handling and inventory control.

"For a lot of these people, it's about developing self-esteem and confidence that they can do these jobs," she says. "Many have never had that opportunity."

The goal is to take people who haven't been in the work force and prepare them for eventually finding jobs on their own.

Berger thinks of it as creating taxpayers.

"We're letting people into a world most have been excluded from," he says. "They get jobs, learn how to do new things and gain the satisfaction that they can contribute. What could be better than that?"

© Copley News Service
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published September 25, 2006

( 11 votes, average: 4.2 out of 5)
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