Finding the right fit for employees with disabilities
At Hope Services, job coaches help tailor work to let such people get ahead
MOUNTAIN VIEW >> As she works her way across the Google campus, Catalina Lynberg uses a laminated map showing the layout of every floor of the six buildings she’s responsible for, marking off which conference rooms she has restocked with supplies and which are occupied by meetings of the tech giant’s employees.
It’s one of the tools her job coach, Zoraida Garcia, created to help Lynberg, who has cerebral palsy, keep track of about 200 conference rooms as a customer service representative on Google’s Mountain View campus.
Lynberg is one of nearly 400 adults with developmental disabilities who take part in the community employment program at the San Jose nonprofit Hope Services, working with job coaches like Garcia to find and keep jobs around the South Bay.
“It’s about integrating our clients into the community like everybody else,” said Chip Huggins, Hope Services’ president and CEO. “Our clients are actu
ally working and living in the community that they live in, not segregated like they used to be, back in the ’60s.”
Now Hope Services is seeking $20,000 through Wish Book to expand the community employment program to help an additional 33 people.
The program’s clients — who have conditions such as autism, Down syndrome and Tourette syndrome — have a lot to offer companies, Garcia says. Many thrive on routines, follow instructions closely and can be happy to stay in positions where turnover is typically high.
Lynberg, 26, was born with congenital heart disease, then suffered a hypoxic brain injury during an open-heart surgery that led to her cerebral palsy.
Today, she rides a shuttle bus with other Google workers and takes evident pride in her work. She is going on three years at the job and likes using the money she earns to buy new clothes and go out to dinners and movies with friends.
“It makes me feel really happy,” Lynberg said. “It makes me feel useful, that I have a job and something to do during my day.”
She added, “Other people with disabilities should join.”
Matching adults with developmental disabilities with the right job can be a challenge on several fronts. Someone’s disability might make him ill-suited for a particular kind of work, or it can be hard to build up a work history showing the person can hold down a job.
And managers, who might not be familiar with developmental disabilities or know how to best work with the people who have them, can be reluctant to hire a person with a disability because they think it will be too great a challenge.
“A lot of employers don’t want to take that risk (or) that responsibility,” Garcia said. “It’s totally understandable, because they don’t have the time to be slowing down for our clients — because they do require training.”
Hope Services officials say those are some of the reasons why fewer than 15% of adults with developmental disabilities have jobs.
That’s where Garcia and other job coaches come in.
They start by identifying each client’s strengths and determining what kind of environment he or she will do well in. They work with clients to pick positions to apply for and help them prepare for interviews.
Then there’s the work coaches do with employers. Hope Services has established relationships with hospitals, tech businesses and other big companies that provide a foot in the door.
For employers who haven’t worked with the organization before, coaches like Garcia provide reassurance that the worker will have the support they need.
Clients don’t have to pay anything for the coaching, and they are paid the same as employees without disabilities.
Once a client has gotten a job, the coach often starts by shadowing him or her at work, answering questions and getting the person adjusted. The coaches also devise strategies to modify jobs to suit clients’ strengths — such as Lynberg’s laminated map, or the checklist Garcia made her to ensure she doesn’t miss any steps in cleaning or preparing rooms.
“You kind of have to cater the job to the client, and the client to the job,” Garcia said.
But though coaches take a very hands-on role during those hectic early months in a new job — and remain on call to help their clients navigate their workplaces — they also step back as time goes on and workers feel more independent.
Lynberg has been a Hope Services client since 2015, working in housekeeping and food service at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital before taking the parttime job at Google.
Today, she still texts Garcia each day to let her know how things are going, and the two meet in person or talk by phone once a week.
Garcia remembered Lynberg as a shy person when the two first met, and it took about six months to get Lynberg’s routines in place at the Google job.
But Lynberg also recently got another part-time job on her own, serving water and bread at a restaurant inside a local hotel.
Today, Garcia said, “You can’t stop her.”
“There are a lot of Catalinas out there that just need the opportunity,” Garcia said.