NapervilleWorks connects special needs workers to jobs

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Sometimes the prefix overshadows the word. Take “disability,” for example. Those who advocate for people with physical and intellectual challenges often have to take extra steps to spotlight the can-do base of the term.

“There’s so much that these kids can do,” said Margie Sillery, whose son Adam has autism and is a primary reason she took on the task of co-coordinating NapervilleWorks a year ago.

Composed of school districts, businesses and families in Naperville and Aurora, the organization is turning up the wattage on its clients’ employability by bolstering the partners’ interconnections to put into the workplace capable young adults who happen to have developmental disabilities.

Through NapervilleWorks, people who have finished their classroom time in Naperville School District 203 and Indian Prairie School District 204 line up paid work and employment training in area businesses.

Many special-needs students in the districts’ six high schools receive transitional diplomas, meaning they still have life skills to work on before they’re ready to move out into independent living, if that is an option. The school-supported transition period continues until the person turns 22.

“We say that’s when the bus stops coming,” said Sillery, whose coverage area is District 204.

Although Adam is a savant who often fills his spare time by punching numbers into a calculator, he has trouble with more basic daily tasks. His unpaid training position at Culver’s, where he is part of the food-service team, is a good fit.

The fast-food outlet is one of more than three dozen local employers who have provided part-time work or training positions through NapervilleWorks. The list is diverse, illustrating that there are places well beyond grocery story checkout lines where workers with disabilities, supported by job coaches in the schools, can readily thrive.

Now hiring

Employment partners range from local elected officials such as City Council member Kenn Miller and 96th District Rep. Darlene Senger, R-Naperville, to Goodwill Industries, movie theaters and health clubs.

“It’s beyond bagging,” said Kathe Foxen, Sillery’s District 203 coordinator counterpart, whose 14-year-old son Nicholas is a student at Washington Junior High School who has multiple needs.

Bagging is just the beginning for program participants at Whole Foods on 75th Street, where they serve as cashier’s assistants.

“So far, it’s been fantastic,” store team leader Joel Braver said of the two-month-old alliance.

If all goes as hoped, the program will soon branch out into stocking and food preparation tasks, as they suit the trainee team members’ abilities. So far they help keep the checkout area clean, lend a hand with loading bags into cars and pack purchases into satchels.

“I’ve heard nothing but good things from the cashiers and the customer service team members,” Braver said.

Forging success

Sillery and Foxen have had a lot of conversations with other parents of kids with disabilities who are headed toward the final bus run. Sillery said they emphasize how the moms and dads quickly learn to advocate continually for their special-needs children. It’s a role that provides the foundation for one day landing them jobs.

“If you have a connection in the community, you can build on that and make it work,” Sillery said.

One mom Sillery and Foxen met created a connection between the participants and her dentist’s office, which now gets some help with filling the goody bags from NapervilleWorks kids. Others have helped forge workplace relationships with local restaurants, retailers, service businesses and office-based enterprises.

Foxen and Sillery took over the coordinator’s task when founder Laurie Jerue’s daughter turned 22 and she stepped down.

“I didn’t see that our young adults in our transition programs had enough opportunities out in the marketplace, and I think part of it was getting the community to think outside the box,” Foxen said.

When parents initially contact the organization, they typically don’t see themselves in a position of helping their kids find work. Foxen said they receive a worksheet to fill out that asks such things as where they do their dry cleaning, where they buy their pet supplies, where they like to eat out. It’s intended to jog their memory.

“It’s designed to teach them how to use their own personal network,” she said. “It doesn’t hurt, when you have your cart full of purchases, to just chat with the manager, and just ask what their experiences are. One is, ‘Have you had a good experience with people who have disabilities?’”

It appears the experience is usually good. A 2005 collaborative study led by University of Massachusetts researchers found that of more than 800 people surveyed, nearly nine out of 10 said they would rather spend their money at companies that employ people with disabilities than those that do not.

Support network

The school districts have had vocational coordinators and job coaches in place for a long time. Employers nearly always have had tasks that can be done by people with disabilities. The key is helping them find each other, so NapervilleWorks goes knocking on employers’ doors.

Organization members talk to business owners about the benefits of hiring the program’s clients. They go beyond the tax benefits and well-established dedication of the workers, who earn minimum wage. They also can boost the bottom line. Foxen said Walgreens has done a pilot program, collaborating with the Chicago advocacy initiative Disabilityworks, that assessed a workforce of which slightly more than one-third was people with disabilities. That sector demonstrated productivity levels equal to their regularly abled colleagues, she said.

And even as job openings have dwindled, the ranks of special-needs job seekers have swelled. Sillery said a decade ago, five young adults were in the transition program. Today there are more than 60, with a broad range of talents and skills and potential. Some are able to drive themselves to work, and others need the extensive support provided by a sheltered workshop. NapervilleWorks functions to ensure a good fit, and that calls for a little face-to-face time.

“The vocational coordinators are out in the community, working with students,” Sillery said. “They don’t have time to make cold calls.”

Jerue said the value of “social capital” should not be dismissed.

“I think that’s just parents — as residents, as neighbors, as clients, as customers — we’re going out and talking to people who own small businesses and saying, ‘Hey, we have these students who would love to work for you, who would love to be trained to work part time,” she said. “I think there’s some momentum building now that’s really exciting to see.”

As a result of her involvement with the group, Sillery feels a sense of hope for Adam that was missing before.

“He’s been able to do so much that I never thought he’d be able to do,” she said.