Monday through Friday a youth from Daviess County drags herself out of bed, showers, gets dressed, wolfs down breakfast, and then catches the bus to Bethany for another day of work at Unified Services.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
This young person is disabled. That doesn’t mean she has to stay at home with mom and dad all day watching T.V. Even with limited skills, there’s plenty she can do at the workshop. Besides hand work and bench work, employees clean offices and parking lots and maintain the rest area on I-35. They have a vending route and there is also a Nifty Thrifty shop, it sells a variety of goods which must be priced and put on the shelves. But the workshop’s manager, Susan Legaard, is concerned that the workshop may have to eliminate the OATS bus route that gets her to and from work every day.
At issue is the declining number of people utilizing the workshop from Daviess County. Though there have been as many as six in the past, right now there are only two, this youth and another youth who is going to the vo-tech school at Bethany.
Unified Services sub-contracts their bus service through OATS.
"Gas has gone up. Insurance has gone up. The bus route is expensive," Mrs. Leegard said.
OATS charges by the mile to run the route. She estimates the cost for OATS to make two trips, there and back, at about $80 a day. Riders themselves are not charged to ride the bus.
Mrs. Legaard said she is surprised that a county the size of Daviess has that few people who would be able to work in a sheltered workshop.
"Do people in the community realize the sheltered workshop is available and what services it offers?" she said "We need to make sure school districts and other organizations know the workshop is an option."
In the past the workshop has received financial assistance through the SB40 Board for part of the cost of the Daviess County bus route. This is a county board for developmentally disabled adults, funded through a tax levy, which was approved by local voters. The tax levy provides for residential, vocational and other related programs and services.
"We’re here to help the developmentally disabled in our county find the most purpose in life," said Darryl Critten, chairman of the SB40 Board. "The sheltered workshop offers a lot of opportunity to those individuals to find meaningful work and lead productive lives."
He points out that when the young man gets out of vo-tech school, the county will be down to only one rider.
"We can’t hardly justify spending money to send the bus up there, unless we get more people from Daviess County going," he said. He added the route needs at least three people to be financially feasible.
The board has been debating the problem over its last several meetings and has tabled the issue to do more research. At its next meeting on June 4, members are planning to decide what to do.
"Can we justify sending one person to Bethany? It’s too much money. But we’d still be helping that one person. We have a lot of mixed feelings," Mr. Critten said.
Mrs. Legaard said the Bethany workshop has 59 disabled workers. Employment is based on job openings and whether the job meets the disabled persons needs or skills.
A sheltered workshop is really a small business and operates much like any other light assembly or service shop. The biggest portion of funding comes from subcontract work performed for local companies and industry. On the average business contract work accounts for 70-80% of workshop revenue, government assistance 10-24%, and the balance from other grants.
Employees are paid on the basis of their productivity. Some disabled employees are able to transition to mainstream employment. Others with physical or mental disabilities find it hard to compete for regular employment, but find success working at Unified Services.
Sheltered workshops need additional supervisors to provide support for workers with disabilities. Mrs. Legaard said there are 20 people on staff at Unified Services, from truck drivers to office people. The state helps offset the cost for the support staff.
Workshops also put money back into the community. According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which provides regulations, in 2001 Missouri workshops paid approximately $95,000,000 back into their communities.
For every $1 Unified Services receives from the state it returns over $6 to the community.
And disabled workers contribute to society when they work at a workshop, as opposed to staying at home collecting disability checks.
"The rest of us generally take work for granted until we’re not able to work someplace," said Mrs. Legaard. "Employees at a workshop can have friends on a level playing field, not because people feel sorry for them. It’s a chance for the disabled to get away from home and be productive and proud with friends who are truly peers."
If you’d like to know more about the sheltered workshop at Bethany, contact Mrs. Legaard at 501 south 26th street, Bethany, MO 64424; phone 660-425-6300 or Darryl Critten at 663-2834.