October is Disability Employment Awareness Month. Observed each October, the Department of Labor encourages us to recognize the value and talent workers with disabilities add to America’s workplaces and economy. Guest is Erin Mayer, Assistant Director of the Service and Support Administration of the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities.
Staying in Contact with London Mitchell
Guest: Erin Mayer, Disability Employment Awareness
Let's take a few minutes away from the music to discuss issues affecting the quality of life in our communities, and introduce individuals working to address those issues. Staying in contact, I'm London Mitchell. October is Disability Employment Awareness Month. Observed each October, the Department of Labor encourages us to recognize the value and talents workers with disabilities add to America's workplaces and economy. Disability Employment Awareness Month is an opportunity for employers to confirm their commitments to ensuring workers with disabilities have access to good jobs every month of the year. The theme this year for Disability Awareness Month is "Access to Good Jobs for All." To help with our understanding of efforts underway to help individuals with disabilities find employment, I turn to a former colleague from the time I work with the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities, Aaron Mayer, currently the Assistant Director of the Service and Support Administration. Individuals with disabilities make up a big pool of available talent, but Aaron, I assume many employers don't know the pool exists. Generally, yes, that's true. We have done a lot of outreach in the last 10 years, partnering with different area businesses, and so we do have partnerships with some larger organizations like Pro America, Walgreens, Meyer and Kroger, places like that that are familiar with our system and hiring individuals with disabilities, but education is definitely a big part of what we do. So what do you say to somebody to open the door to a prospective employer? Yeah. Well, that has shifted over the years. I've been doing employment-focused disability awareness and education this last probably 10 years, and it has changed a lot from when I first started. Coming out of the pandemic, we have seen a huge shift. There is a lot of underemployment going on. Employers are struggling to find people to work, especially a lot of entry-level positions, and so there is a huge need out there right now for workers. So that has really shifted the conversations a lot because employers are really sometimes in desperate need of hiring, and we do have a huge pool of candidates able and willing to work. So usually that's the starting point is meeting with employers and seeing what their needs are and as their business, and then how we can help support them and kind of making that link. And an employer that wants to get in touch with you can do so how? So we at the Lucas County Board don't necessarily have a business liaison anymore with employers, but I would usually recommend they talk to opportunities for Ohioans with disabilities, their local Toledo office. They have business liaisons that work with their ace employers to link with our employment placement agencies. So that's typically who the contact would be. Are there misconceptions or misperceptions that people have about hiring someone with a disability? Well, sure. So, and that's also something we've done education about across the years. The scope of what is an intellectual or developmental disability is very broad. And so people may have an assumption based on a family member or someone maybe they've had contact with before, but that's just one person. These are people. They're individuals and everybody has unique strengths, interests, abilities and skills. And so we really try to provide some over-education about areas where somebody might need some additional supports with checklists or time reminders or just areas they might struggle like social skills in the workplace and really approach it from an individualized perspective rather than being focused on their disability. Well disclosure here, I work with the board in public relations for over 30 years. And when I was with the board, there was also on-site support. Coaching that would, is that still in effect, is that still offered? Yes, absolutely. So there is a continuum of services that we can help link people with when they are interested in seeking employment depending on where they're at. So we can start with career exploration, which is just getting the individuals out into the community to see what types of businesses are out there, what jobs might be a good fit, job development, where we're actually working with them one-on-one to link with employers that are hiring and help successfully get them placed into jobs. And then the on-the-job supports that you're referring to is sometimes called job coaching or job retention services, where again they may have an employment specialist with them at the job to learn the different job skills, workplace expectations. I had talked earlier about the social aspect. So what is the workplace culture and really understanding that and getting connected with their co-workers in that individual's organization? So yeah, lots of supports available. It's all customized and there's a variety of funding sources that we can use to support that, including state and federal funds through Vogue Rehab or through our waiver system here with the Lucas County Board. So the first step might be due to contact OOD? Yes, opportunities for Ohio's with disabilities. They have offices throughout the state and there's one here in Toledo, off the South Wick Boulevard and they are kind of the lead with that business relations person and then also they link with ARP services and other agencies. They serve a wide variety of disability groups, not just developmental disabilities, but physical disabilities or other limitations that may be in place to help people seek and maintain employment. No, I know that you've worked in this field for quite a while. Yes. So what have you learned about a person that has a developmental disability about them wanting to work or their job ethics? Yeah. Well, so much. So a huge part of what we do here at the Lucas County Board is support individuals to kind of live their best life in the community based on what they want to do. We want to see people be thriving in what they're doing and really live a life that we would all want. And employment is such a huge part of that. We have seen so many strengths, not only, like you said, for the employer, but also for the individual in terms of when they're working, first and foremost, they have more money. So they have more resources to do things that they love and enjoy. They get connected with coworkers that they build friendships and relationships. So many great things. I think one of the best stories in all the years I've been doing this as an individual that we had that we placed at Walgreens distribution center in Perrysburg. And he was able to obtain a maintain full time employment there. He's been there for many, many years. He was able to work himself off of the social security system and fully rely on his wages. He bought a car. He drives himself to and from work every day and is just really, again, like living his best life with still some supports from us to help make sure everything is going successful for him. But it was really an amazing story to see and there's been so many examples of that. I think many of us define ourselves by our employment, by our profession. Same with someone who has a disability. Yes, absolutely. We are people, we're humans, we're Americans and work is a huge part of our culture here, absolutely. So you gave me one good example about the person that got the job of the Walgreens distribution center. Any other positive stories? Oh, yeah. Well, there's been lots like that. You know, we don't come into a situation having a defined goal for an individual when they go into employment. We customize everything that we do around what it is that they want. Again, a huge part of our services here with the Lucas County Board is being person centered. So we're meeting with them to find out what they want. And then that looks very different for everybody. So I gave an example of somebody who was working full time in a job with great pay and benefits and kind of got theirself off of kind of the disability system per se, but that's not what everybody wants. So we have other individuals that only work two to four hours a week. And they still participate in some other developmental disability programming through us. And they really find a nice balance with that. But again, having the ability to be out in their communities, feel like they're contributing, making friends, having those social, social opportunities, opportunities for self advocacy and self determination is huge. And what we're about here at the Lucas County Board and being able to help them facilitate that. I loved it when you said that there's a social aspect. Unfortunately, some of the individuals we have, you know, as they've gotten older, maybe they don't have family or they don't have a positive relationship with their family. They do want friendships and those connections. And it's important that it be outside of the developmental disability system for so long. Our system was really segregated and the only opportunity they had for socialization was other peers that had also had disabilities, which can be great as well. But again, having those connections out in the community with non-disabled peers as well has really shown to provide some great benefits for the individuals we support here. Aaron Merr is the Assistant Director of the Service and Support Administration of the Lucas County Board of Developmental Disabilities. I want to thank Aaron for taking the time to join us for a discussion about Disability Employment Awareness Month. Potential employers are invited to learn more by contacting opportunities for Ohioans with disabilities. The website is ood.ohio.gov. I love to receive your email, contact me through my website, LondonMitchell.news. And please accept this invitation to join us again next week as we continue staying in contact. Previous episodes of Staying in Contact with London Mitchell are available on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, Podbean, the Suite 419 app, and LondonMitchell.news. (gentle music)