Navigating today’s job market is challenging for most people, but it can be especially difficult for workers with disabilities.
At Horizons of Okaloosa County, a nonprofit organization that serves children and adults with behavioral challenges and developmental disabilities, unemployment hovers around 35 percent.
“We face the challenge daily of educating employers that our clients are as reliable, if not more reliable, than the average potential employee,” said L.A. Woodall, director of community development for Horizons. “It’s a matter of getting people comfortable with them being there.”
Depending on their disabilities and skill levels, some Horizons clients might need more training or time to complete tasks required by certain jobs. A disabled worker might talk louder or be more outgoing than the average worker, have more energy or need certain accommodations on the job.
But they’re eager to do good work and use the skills they’ve learned, Horizons CEO Julie McNabb said.
“Their attendance is usually outstanding; very low absenteeism,” she said. “They like to go to work and they often don’t have a lot of other things competing with their time.”
The agency has 100 clients enrolled in its supported employment program, but only 65 have jobs. Those adults are able to work with more independence and less supervision than the average client. They are hired and paid by companies such as a fast food restaurants or grocery stores, but receive training and support from Horizons to keep the job.
“We go in and provide the employer and the employee all the support he needs to be successful at that job,” McNabb said. “We provide support for as long as that person has the job.”
Horizons also offers an adult day training program that provides employment through contracts with private firms or local government agencies.
“We contract with a company,” McNabb said. “We make sure that the job gets done, and we utilize people with disabilities to get that work done.”
Horizons has about 75 adults enrolled in adult day training who work jobs such as landscaping, janitorial and packaging.
“We do the county parks,” McNabb said. “We go out and do Marler and Beasley and the access ways. The county has them some days and we have them some days.”
Horizons’ most recent contract is for taking care of the rest area on Interstate 10 just east of Crestview.
“We clean it 24/7, 365,” McNabb said. “We also do all the landscape management. It is huge. We have 22 employees there.”
Horizons crews clean the local United Way building, the Way of Life Unity Church and the Emerald Coast Science Center, all in Fort Walton Beach. They provide landscape maintenance at Northwest Florida Regional Airport, Destin Airport, Okaloosa County’s water and sewer sites and Eglin Federal Credit Union, to name a few.
“We also have an agreement where we go around to all the county buildings and we pick up their recycling materials and transport it out to Waste Management,” McNabb said. “They pay us the gas to do that and our clients also benefit from that.”
McNabb and Woodall always are on the lookout for new employment opportunities for their clients.
“The whole concept is … by helping them become gainfully employed, we help them improve the quality of their life,” Woodall said.
One area of work Horizons would like to see more of is light packaging.
“That’s work that people with the most severe disabilities can participate in,” McNabb said. “We really like that kind of work, but people don’t always think of hiring us to do it.”
McNabb said she wants the community to be aware that Horizons clients — whether in supported employment or as a contract worker — can be productive members of both large and small companies.
“We like anything that’s challenging, that’s going to give our clients the opportunity to learn skills,” McNabb said. “We want them to be at jobs where they get raises and benefits and have the best opportunities.”
TO LEARN MORE: For more information about Horizons of Okaloosa County, go to www.horizonsfwb.com or call 863-1530.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Kari C. Barlow at 850-315-4438 or kbarlow@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KariBnwfdn.