Roll Up Our Sleeves — No Stone Left Unturned

The counselor at the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) shared with us that it could take a year or more to find a good employment fit for Travis. We were up to the challenge. I mean, compared to everything we had already been through in our quest to help Travis in his pursuit to independence and happiness? Bring it on.

I have to be honest. I genuinely thought that DVR had relationships in place with community businesses that would help the job hunting process along. I wasn’t thinking along the lines of Travis’s dream job. I was thinking he would follow the path of many young people. That he would find a job that would teach him some skills and give him some experience. I believed that DVR would help him with placement in a community job that was expecting to train an individual with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD). In return, said company would receive funding from DVR for their extra effort. Or that DVR would fund the payroll. Otherwise it would be difficult to find a business willing to take on this type of responsibility.

That was not the case. Travis had chosen Foothills Gateway as his supported employment provider. DVR funded their efforts to help Travis find employment. In last week’s blog I outlined what Travis’s Individualized Employment Plan (IPE) included.

Over the years Travis has always had a team of people that I call “Team Travis” helping him to navigate the long and winding road of education and services for individuals with I/DD. Members of Team Travis came and went as he changed education placements or his needs changed. But all along his team believed that it would be important for him to be employed in a position that was of great interest to him. Because of his difficulties with staying on task and lack of focus.

The employee from the supported employment services department at Foothills Gateway that was assigned to work with Travis was a good fit. She had a cool vibe. She was not easily flustered. This was important because Travis picks up on the energy of others.

She contacted me to get some ideas on what I thought may be good places to start his job search. I shared that restaurants would not be a good fit. It would be too loud and too much activity, too fast-paced.

I shared that he enjoyed shopping at Goodwill. Travis and I had shopped there in the past when he was needing some gadget. I told her that eventually I would get bored but I had difficulty getting him to leave. Once when we were in the electronics section of the store Travis picked up a cassette player that he wanted to purchase. But it did not have the plug-in cord. He noticed that many of the electronic devices did not have a cord. He found a box of various cords and started to look through it.

Travis not only found a cord for the cassette player, but he also started attaching appropriate cords to the other electronics. In case someone else wanted to purchase any of those items. Much to my dismay. Only because this project went on and on.

I thought Goodwill might be a good fit because their purpose as stated on their website, “Local Goodwill’s are nonprofits that help people overcome challenges to build skills, find jobs and grow their careers”. We also talked about the Arc Thrift stores. They have a history of employing individuals with varying disabilities.

We talked about his love for animals. She shared that the humane society and animal rescue type places use volunteers to fill many of their needs.

I brought up that Travis loves Halloween. I had seen a huge banner that Spirit Halloween was looking for temporary staff.

Travis did put in applications at Goodwill and Arc Thrift stores with the support of his provider. His provider was familiar with the process at Goodwill and Arc because she provided support for other individuals that worked in those stores.

She stopped by Spirit Halloween to speak to the manager about the possibility of Travis getting a job there. The manager was open to it and asked his provider to bring him by.

Part of the process is the requirement to keep the DVR counselor in the loop regarding Travis’s progress in finding employment. Travis’s employment provider shared with the DVR counselor that she was planning on bringing Travis to meet the manager of Spirit Halloween. The DVR counselor said that DVR would not support Travis working at Spirit Halloween because it was a temporary position.

When I heard this I was frustrated. The employment support provider went back to Spirit Halloween and shared this news with the manager. She asked if Travis might be able to volunteer there to build his skills. The manager replied that if Travis was a good fit he wanted to add him to the payroll.

The provider called me to fill me in. I immediately called the DVR counselor and shared my thoughts. I reminded her that she told Team Travis it would likely take a year or more for him to find suitable employment. So what could it possibly hurt for Travis to work a temporary job in the meantime? He could build his skills and have a position and some experience to put on his resume. I also reminded her that Team Travis knew it was going to be a challenge helping Travis to find a job. Why aren’t we thinking outside the box?

I shared with the DVR counselor that I was going to come into the office and speak to her supervisor. And then the supervisor’s supervisor until I got the answer I wanted. Because my understanding was that the purpose of DVR is to support individuals with disabilities find employment.

The DVR counselor allowed the provider to take Travis into Spirit Halloween to meet the manager. Travis was offered a position with a very limited amount of hours. Which made sense to me on many levels. This would be Travis’s first attempt at working a position in which he received a paycheck. The employment provider had shared some of Travis’s needs. I am sure the manager wanted to get a feel as to whether this could work before he made too big a commitment.

Travis opened a checking account so that his paycheck could be direct deposited. Up to this point he only had a savings account. His SSI gets deposited into an account for him that I monitor as his representative payee. That account is used to pay his bills and living expenses. But this checking account was his and he received his first debit card. He liked the idea of having some of his own spending money. Money that he didn’t have to ask me for. And even though working lowers your benefits, I did allow him to spend the money he earned at work. I offered advice. That was often not followed. To this day Travis cannot have money in his wallet without spending it. The same day he receives it. It’s a good thing you cannot overspend on a debit card.

Travis was pretty excited. I offered a great deal of support. I strongly encouraged him to go to bed in good time. Travis is a night owl. He sleeps in. This job required him to come in at 9am. Travis’s first day was September 16th and he worked two hours. On September 21st he worked about 2 hours, and again on September 24th. His first pay date was October 2nd, for 6.28 hours. His gross pay was $56.52. Over the next couple of weeks he only worked 4.27 hours and got paid $38.43 on October 16th. And then the next couple of weeks he worked 6.92 hours and got paid $62.28 on October 30th.

There is a reason I’m sharing this information. (Not to just prove I really did save every piece of paper!) As Halloween got closer, Spirit Halloween got busier. When Travis went in to work his two hour shift the manager asked if he could stay later. And Travis did. The manager asked if Travis could come in again the next day. And Travis did. Travis worked more than his scheduled days, and on those days he worked more than his scheduled hours. Travis helped a bit a few days after Halloween with the take down. His last payday for Spirit Halloween was on November 13th for the period ending November 7th. He worked 27.61 hours. His gross pay, $248.49.

I will share that this was not easy. Team Travis decided that Travis would not be able to work that amount of hours ongoing. But I was so proud. Because even though he was tired, he stayed. Even though his feet hurt, he stayed.

The first few days he helped to carry in boxes of merchandise. Imagine how many boxes come in all at once to stock a Halloween store. Once the boxes were emptied he broke them down. He picked up larger trash from the floor.

I stopped in on a few occasions to see how he was doing. A couple of the times that I stopped in he was overseeing the fitting room line. As fitting rooms became available he would let the next customer in. He would repackage items that were left behind.

Another time when I stopped in the manager told me that a customer shared with him that Travis was helpful coming up with ideas of what to be for Halloween and showing her where to find the items. That day he needed Travis to stay longer than scheduled. Travis told me that he was hungry. I told the manager, how about I take him for a quick bite to eat and he come back. While we were eating I told Travis how proud I was of him.

Travis helped the manager build animatronics for the displays. One day the manager allowed Travis to be part of a display. Travis would scare people as they walked by. He told me that he couldn’t believe he was getting paid to have so much fun!

The Spirit Halloween manager was a special person. He went above and beyond to make Travis’s first work experience a positive one. He shared Travis’s love of Halloween. When they had broken items that they were going to throw away, he let Travis take them home instead. One of the nice things about this job is they had a relaxed dress code.

Travis was told that if he had a successful season he would be an automatic rehire for the next year. When I told him that he would probably have a different job by then, Travis said he could still work a few hours with Spirit Halloween too.

While Travis worked at Spirit Halloween he had the support of his supported employment provider as a job coach. She would demonstrate the tasks for Travis and work at keeping him focused. At times, she worked side by side with him. Other times he was there on his own.

I was surprised by an email she sent to Team Travis when the experience was over. Some of her comments included:

“Overall, he did well. And yet I observed some occasions where Travis tried to make his own rules as to when he can take a cigarette break. He often would not take guidance from me, so I would have to have a manager reinforce my suggestion, which took them away from their job/customers.”
“He often would make excuses or care to discuss something greatly, when he simply needed to work. I think he simply did not care to do the work he was asked to do.”
“One occasion I observed he was set to work on animatronics with the manager. The manager received a phone call. I suggested that Travis stock or find something to do while the manager was on the phone. Travis could not take direction from me and went to find the manager.”
“Travis is well-liked but I feel if this was a typical setting with a 30-90 day probationary period he wouldn’t last.”
“Moving forward, Travis needs to be ready and appropriately dressed for job development.”
“I do enjoy working with Travis and I realize this was his first go-around with a paid position, but he has got to step up. There is only so much I can do for him.”

I immediately felt deflated. I realized that I was more focused on what he did right. The following is how I responded by email to the team:

“Let me just begin by saying that if Travis was capable of seeing what needed to be done and actually doing it on his own accord; if he was great with relationships and doing what is asked or even taking constructive criticism well; if he was motivated; if he cared about or even understood the importance of his appearance; then this team would not be necessary.

And that is before we talk about processing issues. All of the above things are what this team understands makes him hard to employ. It’s very difficult to see the line between the problems brought on by his mental illness and his intellectual disability. I think the team knew going in that finding Travis a long term successful employment was going to be quite a task. But one that I would argue is imperative to his long term well-being. Let me tell a different story from a different perspective.

Travis, even on some very tough mental illness days, showed up to work. The first couple of weeks he only worked 2-4 hours, but the last week he worked every day because they were so busy. I would take him to lunch and he went back to work even after telling me how bad his feet hurt. Luckily this job did not have a dress code. I agree that keeping up this pace would be impossible for him and not good for his mental well-being. And impossible without a great deal of support from his team and his family.

But I am proud of him for agreeing to work additional hours because he felt needed. This is actually a great deal of growth for him. Putting the needs of someone else before his own. And going to bed at a normal time of night and getting up each morning.

Even after hearing the issues that ‘job coach’ references, I feel that this whole experience has been a success. I went in a couple of times during the week and found him working the fitting room counter with his apron on and actively helping customers. The idea that he could be successful, even if it was a lower percentage of time than some may have hoped is a huge step in the right direction for him. And to see how happy he was when he got his first paycheck. Learning how good it feels to work hard, be a good kind of tired, and earn some money.

And one day they let him be part of a display and he got to spend his time scaring people. He had a blast. I get that finding him a position where the manager is so open to working with someone with his disabilities is not going to be a cake walk. And that this manager probably put up with more than he should. But each time I was in the manager made a point to come and talk to me about what Travis did right. And if he can do that, focus on what he did right, maybe we all can.

Because after getting to know him, I think we would all agree this kid is worth it. The extra time and effort. The inordinate amount of patience. Because if anyone knows that, it is me. My goal is to leave no stone left unturned, to find whatever way for Travis to see that his life is worth living so he stops talking and thinking about ending it all. And I saw someone who showed some happiness over this experience. I told him several times how proud I was that he finished the season successfully and was considered an automatic rehire for next Halloween season. Now let’s dig our heels in and roll up our sleeves to continue to find ways to work with him successfully to better prepare him for the working world.”

You see why I had to name my blog, “No Stone Left Unturned”? I used that saying hundreds of times while raising Travis.

Unfortunately Travis never did work at Spirit Halloween again. The following year they did not open a local store. The manager that Travis had worked with had a stroke and did not return to Spirit Halloween. The next year I helped Travis to apply online and mentioned that he had completed a season successfully. Travis never heard back.

“You can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time.” - Patricia Schroeder