OPEN EMPLOYMENT:
SRVS closes workshop, seeks integrated jobs for those with disabilities.
Intellectually and developmentally disabled students graduating from Memphis high schools had few options before the service provider now called SRVS opened a sheltered workshop in 1963.
After 52 years, that humanitarian advancement is giving away to the next one: Community-based employment that integrates disabled workers with employees without disabilities.
SRVS (pronounced “serves”) is expected to announce today the permanent closing of its occupational workshop, SRVS Industries at 3592 Knight Arnold, to focus on landing jobs in the wider community for the people it serves.
Now, the willingness of more Memphis-area employers to hire the disabled may determine whether closing the segregated workshops is a step forward.
Since SRVS adopted the federal government’s “Employment First” initiative in 2013, the nonprofit agency has found community jobs for 26 of the 110 people who worked at the sheltered workshop at the time.
Another 15 have left the workshop for reasons other than employment, and SRVS is seeking jobs for the other 69 while providing them with other community-based activities.
“We’ve been quite successful in terms of having good placements and good job matches,” said Troy Allen, director of SRVS Industries. “But in terms of pure numbers, we are not quite halfway to meeting our goal. It’s been a challenge.
“But we are talking to employers and presenting information and helping them understand the benefits.”
SRVS is the state’s largest provider of services for the disabled, offering day programs, residences and elder care as well as support for community-based jobs. It is preparing to sell its old building at 3592 Knight Arnold, where crews have been breaking down the workshop’s green assembly tables.
Over the years, companies have contracted with SRVS Industries to have its workers perform various jobs. In the foyer stands a metal shelf with products that reflect many of the jobs the workshop has done: Sticking labels on paint cans and packaging turnbuckles, gun
oil kits, fluff for hamster beds, cuttlebones for pet birds and pink packets of Sweet’N Low into plastic bags. The last job before the operation shut down May 30 was sorting metal coat hangers for a uniform company.
Integrating those with intellectual and developmental disabilities into the general workforce will benefit them in several ways, Allen said.
“One of the things we’ve come to realize after providing segregated work for 50 years, the people we support don’t tend to obtain new skills because they are doing the same kind of work in the same environment day after day,” he said.
“But when they do community employment among peers and have natural support, they learn new things, learn new jobs, get a chance to advance,’’ he said. “Overall, they are more successful long-term in community employment versus being in a segregated environment and pretty much doing the same thing day in and day out.”
“I love it,” Eric Ryans said of his work at the AutoZone’s e-commerce fulfillment center at 4400 Summer. He wore the same red polo shirt as his fellow employees while loading pallets with products for shipping. “They treat us good ... These are good people. I enjoy being with these people.”
He’s one of seven SRVS workers hired by AutoZone in the past 18 months, said AutoZone’s Tyrone Brown, whose job title is adviser.
Ryans and another worker with disabilities, William Hunter, started by packing boxes. “Once they acclimated themselves to the environment, they moved on to do other things,” Brown said. “Now they do a variety of things throughout the facility.”
Ryans and Hunter have done so well they’ve received one of the highest awards given by the company, Brown said, adding, “They fit right in with everybody else who works here, and it’s been a remarkable experience for all of us.”
Tarsha Franklin is human resource and safety adviser at the fulfillment center.
“It’s been a wonderful experience,’’ she said of the SRVS workers. “... We’re trying to add more people. We call them people with abilities; they have the ability to come into the workforce and make it happen.”
Employment First is a Department of Labor program to help states change systems to encourage community-based employment.
“Closing SRVS’ founding program is a monumental occasion in our agency’s history,” executive director Tyler Hampton said in a prepared statement. ... We are proud to fulfill the legacy started decades ago by moving to full, integrated community employment for the people we support.”
Agencies like SRVS that have operated sheltered workshops and received federal funds are also responding to a new rule by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It requires that all disability services supported by federal funding be provided in as integrated a setting as possible, according to SRVS.