Bill would boost jobs for Colo. disabled

Matt McNeill stands at the door to the kitchen where he works, head tilted down like he doesn't know what to do with all this attention. He chuckles some, and says, "Oh gosh, I don't know. That's a tough question."

The 21-year-old is nearing the tail end of an internship with Fort Collins assisted-living facility New Mercer Commons and just now he's trying to think about what he likes best. Interacting with New Mercer's residents and making his parents proud top the list, but a more routine task first pops out of his mouth — doing the dishes.

"It's really fun putting them away" McNeill said.

McNeill is the personification of his internship program's intent: To help people with disabilities integrate into the workforce while smashing barriers and stereotypes that may make businesses shy from hiring Colorado's intellectually or developmentally disabled.

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Eighty-five percent of Coloradans with intellectual or developmental disabilities are unemployed. While nonprofits in Fort Collins and elsewhere have pushed to reduce that unemployment rate for years, their cause may gain statewide steam this legislative session when Sen. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, runs a planned bill to advocate for employment-first outcomes for those with an intellectual or developmental disability, also called IDD.

Kefalas' proposal is still being tweaked during the lead-up to the 2016 legislative session, which convenes Wednesday.

"(That unemployment rate) is not from a lack of skill," said Marilee Boylan, who is working with Kefalas on the bill. "It's from a lack of opportunity."

Boylan is executive director of Arc of Larimer County, a Fort Collins nonprofit that advocates for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities through a variety of programs like the one in which McNeill participates.

At New Mercer, McNeill is far from just a dishwasher. He helps serve meals, take drink orders and clean. In other words, exactly what thousands of workers do daily to make ends meet. And while his internship with New Mercer is nearing an end, it's not the end of his time there.

The facility plans to hire him on as a regular employee due to his performance.

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McNeill is on his way to being one of the more recent success stories from Project SEARCH, a Poudre School District program designed to help those with intellectual and developmental disabilities gain work. The program has found partners in Colorado State University's Center for Community Partnership, Columbine Health Systems and Arc of Larimer County.

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Kefalas' bill is still a collection of moving pieces, Boylan said, and she expects its content to change as it progresses through the Legislature. But overall, she describes its goal as "a real global view" to pull multiple state departments toward an employment-first mentality. That includes shifting policy and priorities for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Finance, the state division of vocational rehabilitation and more.

She said the current focus on building pre-employment skills for the IDD community can leave people in pre-employment programs for decades, effectively segregated from the general workforce and the protections and benefits that brings, such as earning a minimum wage.

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The bill's goal is to help businesses understand that the IDD community can help meet their needs. Not out of charity, but by matching people's skills and interests with businesses that need them.

"It all comes down to a job match," Boylan said. "If you hire someone out of pity, say, 'I'm helping this person,' it's never going to work."

Skills put to work

You won't find a bigger business-side advocate for that philosophy than Columbine Health Systems Human Resources Director Joyce Shorthill.

She serves on the business advisory council council for Project SEARCH and helps place the kids — and she always refers to the interns as kids, as they're just out of high school — in jobs they're suited for on Columbine's campus. One intern helps stock the vending machine and collects the change; another runs Medicare records to make sure patients' coverage hasn't lapsed.

"It's pretty easy to get people with disabilities to work for you," she said. "You just need to be a little bit more open minded."

To further facilitate integration into the workplace, Shorthills' interns work with job coaches who help with communication and task orientation. The coaches don't shadow the employees indefinitely. Holly Darnell, one of the coaches, said the emphasis is building a foundation for independence and self-advocacy among those she works with.

After that foundation is laid, she may pop in every few months or to help the employee orient with a new task, but is fairly hands-off otherwise, she said. Even then, she and the other coaches don't want the employees treated lightly or dismissively. Shorthill said she's actually run into problems where employees without IDD fall behind because they start doting on their new colleagues, despite them performing adequately without the help.

"They get treated like every other employee," Shorthill said. "You need to show up on time and complete your tasks."

Business statistics about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities

• 85 percent of people with IDD are unemployed
• 69 percent of accommodations for employees with IDD cost nothing
• 92 percent of customers like a business more if it employs a person with IDD.

Source: The Arc of Larimer County

Get involved with Project SEARCH

Internship applications for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities are due Jan. 22. For more information, contact Project SEARCH coordinator Emilie Ring at emilier@psdschools.org or 970-219-6667.

Business owners are encouraged to participate in the program via its Business Advisory Council. For more information, contact Ring at the above or Joyce Shorthill, human resources director for Columbine Health Systems, at joyce.shorthill@columbinehealth.com or 970-492-6231.

This story has a correction: An earlier statistic about the increase in unemployment among those with intellectual or developmental disabilities could not be verified by The Arc of Larimer County. Instead, the cited report indicated a 19 percent decrease in number of people in supported employment with working hours and an almost 92 percent increase in the number of people receiving service hours in community participation/community access programs.