Wednesday, July 19, 2000

More disabled going to work

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Fewer being sent to special facilities

By Sarah Anne Wright
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        More mentally retarded and developmentally disabled adults in Hamilton County are entering the work force — and workplaces.

KEN WRIGHT WORKS AT THE E. ROGER JACKSON ADULT CENTER IN OAKLEY. (Tony Jones photo) | ZOOM |

        Posting $1.3 million in sales last year with a client list that includes the Gap, Procter & Gamble and Xerox, a new, strategic approach to vocational training is providing unprecedented opportunities for those workers.

        The Hamilton County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MRDD) and its nonprofit arm that oversees employment opportunities, General Assembly Inc., are trying to drum up business in the private sector.

        In addition to providing more job opportunities, the public-private partnership has cut costs, officials say. Hamilton County's adult program at the MRDD has the lowest per-person cost in the state, at $10,987 per year, said Jeff Davis, deputy director with the Ohio Department of MRDD.

        Last year, 100 businesses and charitable organizations in the Cincinnati area employed mentally disabled workers by contracting through the General Assembly.

        Sixty-five percent of the contract work was done in what are called “sheltered work sites,” in one of four adult centers that host day programs for the disabled.

        Yet an increasing amount of labor was done at company locations — either through a contract with General Assembly or directly through the employer.

        Since 1992, Patriot Signage Inc. in Dayton, Ky., has used General Assembly labor. Each day, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., seven workers from General Assembly bend 20,000 wire wickets into U shapes, to serve as a hangers for plastic political signs.

        “They're incredibly reliable and wonderfully adept,” said Kevin Keefe, Patriot Signage's president and co-owner. “A lot of folks think you sacrifice when you work with folks with disabilities, but our experience has just been fabulous.”

        It used to be that Patriot Signage would send the work to the adult centers, but in 1995, it built its own facility and had the workers come to it.

        The result was a doubling of productivity, which Mr. Keefe attributed to fewer distractions.

        Election years are busy ones for the sign company, and consequently, it needs flexible staffing.

        “A couple of years ago, we tried some temporary services to supplement what they were doing,” Mr. Keefe said.

        “Those folks were unreliable and did not focus on the task. Day in and day out, these folks get the job done.”

        Some of the business-oriented changes taking place at the MRDD were set in motion by Rick Ratterman, a former certified public accountant who now is the director of business operations for General Assembly and also assistant director of adult services for Hamilton County MRDD.

        “I have close to 1,000 workers that I can throw on the job at any given time,” Mr. Ratterman said. “Our biggest problem is that people don't know what we can do.”

"Watch me!'
        At the E. Roger Jackson Adult Center near the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Oakley, about 200 people come to work.

        “Watch me do this!” John Haag said as he takes apart plastic components of a needle-free syringe and sorts them into piles for re- cycling.

        Other work groups assemble gift packs for Procter & Gamble; others put together kits that replace a bartender's drink nozzle; some shrink-wrap compact discs.

        The majority of disabled workers do not earn a minimum wage. Most General Assembly workers are paid on a per-unit basis, which is allowed by law.

        The U.S. Department of Labor gives these individuals, who have mild to profound cases of mental retardation, a rating based on how well they can perform certain tasks. This rating is multiplied by the time it takes an average nondisabled person to accomplish the same task, and based on the prevailing wage, what at least four local businesses would pay to complete the job.

        For five-hour days, monthly salaries for Hamilton County's General Assembly workers average $46.04.

Looking to future
        Certainly, the goal of the program is not to get anybody rich, but to provide some economic opportunity and rehabilitation for people with disabilities.

        Last year, the prevailing wage in Hamilton County went up 15 percent to keep pace with the economy and the growing need for workers.

        While the subminimum wage gives the disabled a chance to work, it is a controversial topic. Last year, some workers in the Volunteers of America program in Columbus reported that they were being overworked and underpaid.

        The demand and costs for services for the disabled are expected to climb dramatically in the future, due in part to medical advances.

        One of the things that's likely to slow down the disabled work force is the labor shortage. Even community-supported jobs still require on-site supervisors to help train and manage the workers. Generally, there is one supervisor to every four or five disabled workers.

        Ask Mr. Ratterman in which direction he plans to take his employees, and his face lights up like any other entrepreneur of this age.

        “The Internet,” he said. “I really think we could find opportunity there.”

       

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