"We want to diversify who we serve here in the metro communities." – Kaposia CEO Jackie Mlynarczyk.
August 3, 2007
ST. PAUL – A person with a developmental disability, young or old, has a major hurdle with seeking meaningful employment that pays well and offers opportunity for advancement. Unemployment for people with disabilities is over 70 percent, and for new Americans, the job search is compounded with language and cultural barriers.
Founded in 1963, Kaposia, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides many customized and integrated "facility-free" employment services and support for people in the metro area with developmental disabilities and other transitional challenges with welfare to work, rehabilitation services and others. Their goal is to help all people work who want to work.
“We try to think about the possibilities for a person and how we can make a meaningful job for somebody,” said Kaposia CEO Jackie Mlynarczyk. “We say, ‘you dream, we deliver’.
Kaposia’s clients range from people who are cognitively challenged and restricted to simple tasks, are physically limited, deaf or blind, to someone who is only slightly disabled and in need of minimal support to perform in a given environment.
The clients come from state and county human services and vocational rehabilitation services but this is not a medical model support plan.
“We can help people think about what it is they want to do and we try to put it together by building good working relationships with the employer, the job seeker and the family,” she added.
Mlynarczyk, a past chair of the Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities, oversees the 75 employees and a $4 million annual budget. She has made Kaposia her career for the past 37 years. Her leadership and work has brought many awards and recognitions from business, trade, and consumer organizations, and a reputation as a national leader in supported employment.
Clients that are new Americans or people from communities of color will often prefer to work in a mainstream setting where they are not segregated. These clients prefer the setting, perhaps in part to being part of a bigger community outside of their own, where they may have been over-protected by families, or did not have the same opportunities for meaningful employment.
Language and culture are barriers are one thing, but according to Jon Alexander, Kaposia Director of Operations, they are about serving and supporting each client. This means matching them with jobs that fit their skills and abilities in manufacturing, clerical, retail, hospitality, service and professional sectors. They also provide on-the-job training, technical assistance and follow-up support.
The Kaposia principles of treating people with dignity and respect stems from a belief that all people have capacities, abilities, and a desire to achieve a dream. For most adults, having a meaningful job is part in parcel to achieving that dream. That is why they continue to support 450 retired clients with transitional, volunteer and recreational programs in addition to the 250 active clients.
Supporting one person’s pursuit of a dream is different from the next. For one the family is paramount. For the next person the idea of independence is liberating.
“That is why we are working with what is important to each person,” said Alexander. “If someone wants to stay within their own community, then that is fine. With each there is individual preference and abilities and that is why we customize the employment situation around that person. There are questionnaires and we build a profile to what environment works best for a person and for good retention.”
Bringing persons with developmental disabilities into a workplace is rewarding in many ways. When the person is where they want to be and can perform a function in support of the business, this helps to build morale in the workplace.
Consumers also rate employers highly when they see people with disabilities in visible occupations such as the hospitality and health industries.
“They are part of our population and they are consumers too,” said Mlynarczyk. “Surveys put hiring people with disabilities at number three on the importance list.”
Kaposia is preferable to the “standard” of provider vocational services that tend to move people into the big workshop environment where they perform subcontract work for sub-minimum wage.
“We don’t want to do that because we want people to be out there in the community, participating and working and making much better wages,” said Alexander.
Kaposia makes connections with area employers and works with human resources departments to fill existing jobs and create new ones through consulting to help identify a needs and where a worker might help with more efficient and cost-effective operations.
When successful, the new worker will enjoy a job where they do well and make a difference. They can fit in well with a group, and won’t stand out with a disability because they are performing a meaningful job.
“We try to build the capacity of the employers and the coworkers as far as the training piece,” said Mlynarczyk. “There is some support on the job, but we try to engage the employees and the employers in that process.”
Kaposia differs from the charitable approach by working with the employer to design needed jobs that are essential to operation. Kaposia consultants help employers to restructure positions to create cost-effective support roles that will allow the more essential personnel more time on what they really need to being doing to maximize their production.
The process of determining a clients needs and abilities is different from the mainstream assessment tools, which tend to point negatives. The Kaposia model focus is on identifying an inventory of skills and interests to match available jobs. This model works well with the young job seeker without much of an idea of what they want to do with their lives.
The Kaposia staff display excellent sensitivity and abilities to explain things with patience in on-the-job training. Their goal is to train the worker well, but also to developing good relationships between the client and their employer.
Once a job is identified, the client will gain command of necessary skills, roles and responsibilities right on site, as opposed to generalized learning skills in a classroom setting.
Once the client is hired, there is continued short and long-term support as needed. Transportation is the biggest barrier to employment and the most common long term support provided to people who cannot drive, aren’t on the bus line and don’t qualify for Metro Mobility.
Without these types of services, the worker with a developmental disability will often wind up with piecework jobs, being paid sub minimum wages for work that is commensurate with their speed. This is the standard work environment for people with developmental disabilities, said Alexander.
“We see situations like that everyday where people are so slow at a job that they can’t perform to standards,” he said.
The blame is partly on ineffective job counselors that follow a system which pigeonholes people into jobs they where they cannot perform to speed. They should be matched with a job where they will perform better and will stay with better pay.
There are also a lot of developmentally disabled in fast food and janitorial – which is not a bad thing in itself. However, with a 300 to 400 percent turnover in that industry, the chemistry of people that was once a supportive environment changes quickly.
“Job retention and job satisfaction; we look at results,” said Mlynarczyk. “Sometime that takes more time up front to find that right match, that right job.
“Its not just any job,” she added. “Sometimes, because people have been underserved or under-employed they are anxious to get into a job right away. We try to help them understand that is not about any job but its finding that right match otherwise they will be at that job for 30 or 90 days and then be back to square one.”
Kaposia will attempt to raise $30 thousand to purchase two new minivans with the Walk For Wheels on Saturday, September 9, 2007, 9:00 a.m. at Como Park. For more information about Kaposia call 651-789-2807 or visit www.kaposia.com.
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