Regulars at Springfield coffee shops may see Thomas Marshall as a neatly dressed 23-year-old with glasses and an occasional body movement that reflects a modest level of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
Less apparent are two things that more clearly separate Marshall from most people in the work force: a keen focus on career goals and a dedication to habits that keep his emotional and physical life in balance.
Both are required for him to work five four-to-six hour days a week doing meal prep, portioning and the occasional event for Springfield’s Carmae Catering.
On this final Sunday of Disabilities Awareness Month, that makes Marshall a model for what Gov. John Kasich had in mind in his 2012 executive order that move adults with developmental disabilities out of sheltered workshops and into community employment.
Rita Marshall, Thomas’ mother and a career social worker, says this has made her son “part of a great (as in huge) experiment” to integrate people with disabilities into the mainstream economy and society.
It’s an effort many employers and the society are not entirely prepared for, she said, “but are getting there.”
The stated goal of the executive order involves “moving the conversation from whether (a developmentally disabled) individual can work to finding exactly where they want to contribute,” something of a gold standard for any person’s career.
Crucial buy-inAngela Maroney, a coordinator at Developmental Disabilities of Clark County,” says that “Thomas and his family are very unique” among individuals and families she works with “both in their assumptions that he can be successful and in working (together) toward that end.”
Marshall said she sees both sides of that coin. While parental backing is crucial because “it takes a lot of emotional support to work in a community that you don’t quite fit into,” parents have reasons for not wanting to send their developmentally disabled children into an unsheltered workplace.
“You have an extra level of (protectiveness),” she said. “You’re always on high alert …. I’m not going to have somebody treat him like a lesser person.”
Support system
Scott Jones, director of Developmental Disabilities of Clark County, is familiar with parental concerns about their children: “Will they be treated with respect? Will they be able to do the job? How do they communicate? How do they get to their job or get home? Who will help them in the event of an emergency? How does a job affect their benefits?”
All are questions his department’s Community Connections and Employment (CCE) Department try to address for 128 people with developmental disabilities now working in Clark County. Six are self-employed and 122 work in jobs paying from minimum wage ($11 an hour) to $22 an hour.
CCE Service and Support Administrators Employment Navigators are now doing the same for 30 people looking for a job.
A footnote here is the department’s decision to avoid the term “case workers” from its vocabulary because to succeed, the relationships require a level of knowledge closer to friendship, something Jones and Maroney illustrate with stories from their work files.
Beneath the wordsJones said he thought he had hit a dead end with a young woman who gave a flat “no” when asked about her interest in a job. What he eventually learned she was that she was interested not so much in the job as in having money so she could donate it to a children’s hospital that had helped her.
Her story became a story of “one success builds on another” Maroney later heard from a staff member that the same young woman leveraged her job into a large leap forward.
Feeling left out socially because she didn’t have an iPhone, the young woman not only resolved to get one but had the discipline to save the money to do so, which brought a twofold reward. First, she felt like she belonged in the world. Second, she learned how money earned in a job can be combined with good money management to improve her life.
Finding motivatorsBecause the goal is not just to get people with disabilities their first job but to help them stay employed for decades, Jones and Maroney also were called on to help a young man who hated his job ferrying grocery carts from the bins in a parking lot to the store.
Among “a lot of good information” they obtained from his supportive family, Jones said two pieces proved most important: One, the young man loved to dance at weddings, and two, he was proud of what Maroney called an “amazing” garage that he’d built with Legos.
Jones said during time Ina dance program they connected him with, “he started making eye contact” with others, which bumped social skills work requires. Not long after, a local employer came asking for someone to work with auto parts, and the staff turned to the young man because the garage he’d built seemed clearly related to an interest in cars.
The result helped put him in that sweet spot in the work force where that connected his job with his interests.
Because a child’s expressed interest in anything helps identify what motivates the child, Rita Marshall encourages parents of children with developmental disabilities to support them in those interests.
She said she didn’t think much of Thomas’ interest in running cross country when he brought it up at the dinner table while in middle school, it turned out to be very important.
Though he never won a race, he did feel a sense of connection with a team and clearly felt a sense of accomplish from finishing races the one time he managed to pass someone else on the course.
At the speed of work
Like everyone else, people with developmental disabilities run into problems, which CCE Employment Navigators try to help them work out.
But among the many the workplace issues that can arise, one keeps Rita Marshall up at night about her son’s career: The speed of work.
“Food service is fast paced,” she said, “and they want things to be done quickly.”
In addition, when changes come, employers also want their workers to learn adapt quickly and multi-task.
But in working with her son, she knows the best method is to “introduce one task at a time and let him master that” before introducing the next – and reasons that’s the case with many who have developmental disabilities.
Because of that, she likes to remind employers that their patience will be rewarded.
“You’re never going to get a more loyal and committed individual,” she said, “because of the pride they take in being employed.”
One can’t help thinking it’s a pride rooted in the patience they must have with themselves to get the job done in what must always seem a very fast-paced world.