Group toils to find work for disabled

The workers represented by Wendy Firestone are unfailingly loyal.

They're accompanied by counselors who help them learn their jobs and keep in close touch with employers about the workers' progress.

Still, placing workers in private-sector jobs is a slow business for Firestone and the Washoe Association for Retarded Citizens.

In the two years that the association has made a concerted effort to find jobs in the community for adults with significant cognitive disabilities, it's placed a dozen workers.

One works in a repair shop specializing in vacuum cleaners.

Another started work as a greeter at a home improvement center and now works in its garden center.

Others work at casino kitchens, assisted living homes and janitorial contractors.

Firestone, a client program administration for the Washoe Association for Retarded Citizens, says the organization devotes significant time to making sure that positions connect with the interests of her job-seekers.

"These folks make really good employees," she says.

"They are completely enthusiastic about the work they do because we match jobs with their interests."

Then, too, they're highly loyal.

In the past two years, not a single worker placed by the association in a private-sector job has moved on.

But Firestone acknowledges that some employers worry about their ability to train a disabled worker a worry the association addresses through intensive use of counselors.

When the association places a worker, one of its counselors learns the job.

Then the counselors work side-by-side with the workers to teach the job.

And the counselors stay in close contact with employers after training is completed, making sure that no problems have arisen.

"That consultant will be there forever," Firestone says.

While many businesses owners believe they don't have any positions that can be handled by disabled workers, the Washoe Association of Retarded Citizens looks for ways it can undertake "job carving" taking a few duties from one job and combining them with duties from another job to create a position that a disabled worker can handle.

That often means, Firestone says, that the association has better luck working with smaller companies that aren't bound by strict job descriptions.

The workers are paid market-level wages.

While about 800 adults with significant cognitive disabilities live in the Truckee Meadows, Firestone says not all of them are looking for work in the community.

Among those who are interested in private- sector jobs, she says job-hunters have a range of interests.

"It's not just janitorial," she says.

"They have a lot of abilities and interests."

Still, she says a large percentage of the companies that hire workers with a disability are those in which owners or top managements have personal experience, perhaps among family members, with people with cognitive disabilities.

The payoff for companies that have worked with the association, she says, often extends to improved relations with the rest of the workforce.

"Most employees," she says, "really appreciate the fact that they work for a place that has a heart."

(Employers interested in learning more about the Washoe Association for Retarded Citizens employment program can contact Firestone at 333-9272.)