Work Training Helps Buy Self-Esteem : Key Word Is Job for Retarded Crew

George Schwenk was carefully wiping crumbs Friday from the tracks of the sliding door to the bakery case of a Woodland Hills restaurant.

“They get very messy,” the 33-year-old said. “It’s our job to keep them clean.”

The key word is job for Schwenk, a retarded adult who has been picked for an experimental West Valley commercial work training program.

Schwenk belongs to an eight-member work crew that contracts with private businesses to do janitorial and maintenance work as on-the-job training.

But its officials say the project has encountered the same reluctance to hire the retarded that the mentally handicapped have been experiencing since 1965, when California began moving them from state institutions into local communities.

Only Three Firms Participating

Despite more than five months of calling and cajoling by administrators of the Woodland Hills program, only three companies have agreed to let the crew bid for work contracts.

In the program, crew members travel to shops and stores to work under the supervision of training specialists and a full-time crew leader. The students range in age from 18 to 40. Their pay is based on how closely their work matches that of non-retarded workers.

For most, it is their first paying job. Each hopes it is not the last.

“I’m going to look for a job cleaning tables and chairs when I leave here,” said Brenda Julian, 21, who was assigned to clean window blinds at the restaurant Friday morning before it opened for business. “I want to put money in my savings account for extra things for my apartment.”

Social Security covers the basic living expenses for Julian and Schwenk, and for about 3,000 similarly retarded adults living in the San Fernando Valley. They can earn up to $85 a month without losing any of their government money.

“The money they earn from their work buys self-esteem,” said Steve Miller, resource developer for the nonprofit Work Training Program Inc., the organization that established the crew in November.

Work Training Program has provided classroom consumer and social instruction for 100 students at a time since it was set up 10 years ago in rented space at the rear of a Woodland Hills church.

The state pays to teach each student for only two years. That is sometimes not long enough to master the skills and social niceties expected by employers, said Harriet Rechtman, Work Training Program project manager. So the project needs the jobs to help pay for up to six months of extra training, she said.

Potential employers have shied away from contracting for jobs such as lawn maintenance, janitorial service and assembly-line work, Rechtman said.

‘All Kinds of Excuses’ Given

“I get all kinds of excuses when we call companies up to make presentations,” she said. “They’ll say they can’t use us because of union problems, or they have to go through special committees first, or they don’t use outside vendors.

“I’ve been told by places that they do not use outside contract services, when I know full well they contract out their food service. Nobody comes right out and says they don’t want our people, but . . . .” She shrugged.

Rechtman said she landed her first commercial contract while eating lunch in the Slim Cuisine, a restaurant in Woodland Hills. The proprietor, Mike Fessinger, said he hasn’t regretted hiring Rechtman’s crew for twice-a-week cleanup duty at $125 a month.

“They are fabulous,” Fessinger said. “They are nice, polite and do a hell of a lot better job than my own employees used to do. They’re the type who won’t leave until the job is done. Since they’ve been cleaning, I haven’t had a single problem with the Health Department.”

On Fessinger’s recommendation, the owner of a yarn shop on Mulholland Drive has also contracted with the retarded students. A Canoga Park apartment complex is their third customer.

“We could put together two more crews tomorrow,” Rechtman said. “Our goal is to have work for them five hours a day, five days a week.”

Earlier Program

The project is a refinement of on-site job training launched in the Valley six years ago by the Exceptional Children’s Foundation.

In that Panorama City program, students practice gardening work at a few private residences and do landcaping and maintenance at churches and offices. They also do maintenance work at the tennis courts at California State University, Northridge, but have no commercial contracts, foundation spokesman Tim Rich said.

The Woodland Hills project is being watched closely by other nonprofit groups that are designated by the state to provide job training for mentally ill and retarded adults, according to rehabilitation experts.

“It’s a very appropriate program to transition people into real work,” said Gay Parrish, chief of community development programs for the North Los Angeles County Regional Center. Her private, nonprofit corporation contracts with the state’s Department of Developmental Disabilities to handle screening and referrals to Valley shelters and training programs.

‘Job Is Their Life’

Parrish said it is unfortunate that more companies won’t hire the retarded.

“Employers should realize people with these disabilities tend to have a better work record,” Parrish said. “Their job is their life. They show up for work and they do their best.

“If they are unsuccessful on the job, it’s often because they haven’t learned all the social skills yet. But, once they get integrated, co-workers learn they’re just like anybody else. They may speak slowly, but they are good workers and nice people.”