The ever-changing workplace

Alex Coolman

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the second in a four-part series

focusing on the struggles and triumphs of the disabled, their families

and those who live and work with them.

COSTA MESA -- The sidewalk is still slick with rain when Steve

Harrison shows up for work at the Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter.

The 40-year-old Costa Mesa resident takes a dolly and begins to move

boxes of clothing and various household items, stacking them in a closet

near the rear of the shelter.

Ask Harrison what he’s doing and the answer is simple. He says “I’m

putting away the donations” that have been dropped off for the shelter,

which serves homeless families and victims of domestic abuse.

Ask him how long he’s been doing the job, and the answer is simpler

still. “Since 10 a.m.,” he says -- a response that is technically

correct, but leaves out something important: Harrison has been working at

the shelter for about three and a half years.

Harrison is autistic. His way of thinking about himself and his world

shows some limitations of perspective that are characteristic of the

disability.

But as the sidewalks at the shelter begin to dry and he bustles

through his morning routine, the side of Harrison that is most obvious is

not one that is limited. This is a man who is energetic, buoyant,

effective.

“I can count on Steve for most of the stuff” that needs to be done at

the shelter, says Lillian Magee, Harrison’s job coach. “He’s pretty

good.”

Harrison is one of four employees, all with cognitive difficulties,

who come to work at the shelter as part of a program coordinated by a

Costa Mesa organization called the Vantage Foundation.

It’s a group that tries to find work situations different from those

offered to the disabled in the past -- jobs that are not hidden away in

some shuttered workshop but are a part of the mainstream community.

Vantage, which has been around for 25 years, supports 130 clients,

many of whom are severely disabled.

Art Hendrickson, an area manager for the organization, says the

integrative approach, which tries to encourage contact between the

group’s clients and the non-disabled world, has something to offer both

sides.

“People realize that there are disabled people who are capable” when

they come across them in the course of their jobs, he said. “It adds an

air of dignity to that population.”

Debbie Marsteller, executive director of the group, noted that much of

the fear and anxiety that the mainstream population experiences in

dealing with someone in a wheelchair or someone with cognitive

difficulties can come from the fact that such meetings, at least in the

past, were rare.

“An older generation had never really been exposed to people with

disabilities because they had been institutionalized, and that was the

norm,” she said.

Vantage takes the opposite approach. Rather than trying to hide what

is weak or unusual, the group uses work as a way of bringing together

people with different backgrounds.

At the Fountain Valley office of California Elwyn, an organization

that places disabled workers in positions throughout Orange County, the

idea of using employment as a way of breaking down misconceptions has

gained strength over the years.

“It really started in the early ‘80s,” said Alison Dores, program

manager for individual placement. Before that, “it was a lot less common

to see someone who looked like they may have had a disability working at

a grocery store or at your law office.”

Part of what has made the difference is the philosophy of agencies

that emphasize possibilities rather than limitations.

“The basic premise is that there’s a job out there for anybody,” she

said. “No matter what your disability, there’s a job for you.”

For Harrison, and for the other workers at the Interfaith Shelter,

having a job means much the same as it does for anyone else: the chance

to contribute something meaningful to a community, the chance to learn

new skills and the chance to earn a modest salary for the effort.

Harrison said he saves his paychecks for trips to Knott’s Berry Farm.

Another worker, 39-year-old Dave Fisher, said he planned to buy some Tom

Jones CDs.

These types of goals, though not particularly grandiose, are the kinds

of things that give people the hope and structure to make their days

meaningful, Hendrickson said.

“It gives them a purpose, it gives them a focus, it gives them a drive

to do something,” he said.

He was speaking specifically of the way jobs open up the lives of the

disabled. But a moment later he looked out the window at the gloomy

weather.

“On a day like today, what would we be doing if we weren’t at work?”

FYI

Organizations that help to employ the disabled:

The Vantage Foundation, (714) 434-7870

California Elwyn, (714) 964-7371