Work crews comprised of people with disabilities delivered warmth to Connecticut families following the October storm.
Many career advisors, including The Career Key blogger Lawrence K. Jones, will tell you the most desired job situations are the ones that make “the best use of one’s abilities and gives one a feeling of accomplishment.” As the state of Connecticut struggled to restore power to 831,000 customers following the October 28 nor’easter, a work crew comprised entirely of people with disabilities found themselves on the front lines of helping people stay warm.
Typically, the firewood that the crew bundles and delivers to grocery stores and gas stations is used more for display and ambience than a primary source of warmth — think patio firepits on cool, summer nights over the blazing basement furnace. But that’s what they suddenly became, and continued to be relied upon through the prolonged outages.
In her Hartford Courant article, Julie Stagis reported that the crew sold 2,000 bundles in the two weeks after the storm, a quantum increase in demand from the 10,000 bundles sold during the entire previous year. As the crew’s boss told Stagis, the shift in purpose helped instill more purpose in each worker’s approach to his or her tasks:
‘We were getting calls left and right. … It was a real motivating factor for the crew,’ said Stephen Morris, executive director of the organization, which is commonly known as FAVARH. ‘They took an ordinary job and it allowed people to stay in their homes, which was … really a critical need.’
Stagis sees the sense of job satisfaction as a common thread among other successful ventures operated by people with disabilities. At the New England Assistive Technology Disability Equipment Center in Hartford, these people work on restoring walkers, canes, shower benches, wheelchairs, scooters, and other medical equipment, which is then resold at discounts of up to 80% to uninsured people who need them. The success is in the numbers, as Stagis reports:
When it started nine years ago, 54 pieces of equipment were sold, according to Vice President Bruce Stovall. Last year, more than 1,500 pieces of equipment were sold.
In Meriden, the Arc Eatery began by making pies exclusively, but has since expanded to offer a full breakfast and lunch menu. It employs 17 people with disabilities who previously struggled to find employment in food service, which executive director Pamela Fields describes as “their real love.”
What job or jobs have you loved doing the most and why? Share in the comments section below.
Image by Stephane Moussie, used under its Creative Commons license.