Retarded Thrilled by Mainstream Jobs, Paychecks
Whenever Dan Fuller gets down about work, he looks at the eight special employees in the auto detailing department he runs. Victims of birth defects, they all are mentally retarded. Ranging in age from 22 to 35, the workers have an average IQ of 65.
“These kids are happy. They are thrilled to death to have a job, to get a paycheck,” said Fuller, director of the parts and service department at Jim Click Ford in Irvine.
The retarded men were placed in the mainstream marketplace with supervision by a trained specialist 1 1/2 years ago by Saddleback Community Enterprises, a work center in Mission Viejo for developmentally disabled adults.
One of the workers is Scott Wirtz, 25, who suffered a brain hemorrhage two days after he was born. He has washed windows, cleaned vinyl and shampooed carpets at Jim Click Ford for a year. “I love it,” Wirtz said, smiling broadly in his regulation uniform with Scott embroidered over the pocket. “I like it very much,” he went on for emphasis. “A lot.
“I get along with everybody. I don’t complain. I enjoy getting big paychecks, and I am lucky to be having a nice boss.”
Wirtz has learned how to take Dial-a-Ride from his mother’s home in Mission Viejo to the dealership. He works from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. five days a week. Like the other regular workers, he was issued a regulation uniform and a locker, punches a time clock and is invited to the holiday office parties.
Like the other disabled workers, he is paid according to a formula based on his productivity and half the minimum wage--which amounts to roughly $1.68 an hour. His check covering the last two-week period amounts to $88.62.
The local project was initiated by Jim Click, a Tucson, Ariz., resident who--inspired by a retarded relative of his own--had instituted a similar program at his Tucson agency, said Charles Dodd, general manager at the Irvine
dealership. The pilot program was one of the first to be paid for by the state (which pays the special supervisor’s wages), according to John Shegina, a resource specialist for the state’s Department of Rehabilitation. There are now five similar ventures in California, he said.
“What is happening at Jim Click Ford paved the way for private industry and the public sector to get together and do amazing things that before had not been done,” Shegina said. The state’s grant ends next April. Saddleback Community Enterprises will then pay the supervisor’s wages, he said.
Officials say supervised mainstream jobs for the mentally retarded--who 20 years ago might have spent their lives in a state hospital--are “the wave of the future.” Not only do they cut public costs, but they also provide valuable role models for the handicapped, said Shegina.
Since Congress ordered public education for the handicapped 10 years ago, many severely disabled youngsters have completed special education programs. But education programs end for them when they turn 21. And many are discouraged by the lack of opportunities for them afterwards, according to Arthur Ihnen, director of the nonprofit Saddleback Community Enterprises, one of eight work centers or sheltered workshops for the disabled in the county.
The workers at Jim Click Ford were chosen for outside jobs from among the 165 workers with varied disabilities at the Saddleback workshop.
At sheltered workshops such as Saddleback Community Enterprises, disabled adults work on industry subcontracts, usually doing low- and semi-skilled jobs
such as packaging and assembly. They are paid according to a formula based on minimum wage and productivity.
Some experts contend that segregating developmentally disabled adults deprives them of valuable role models and that repetitive work is boring, said Shegina.
Off-site programs offer a chance for some “clients” to move out of the workshops and into the community, where they can acquire the skills needed in a normal work environment and earn the respect of others, said Ihnen. Work crews have also been sent to James Hardie Irrigation in Laguna Niguel, he said.
One client, the victim of a brain defect at birth, has entered the mainstream workplace, collating and packaging preschool supplies, Ihnen said. She receives a competitive wage, and her employers receive tax credits, he said.
But outside work can be lonely for mentally retarded workers isolated in mainstream jobs, and some who have tried it have voluntarily returned to the shelter of the workshop, Ihnen said.
They prefer to work with the other clients, who range in age from 22 to 64 and display a variety of symptoms of the 135 causes of developmental disability. Many were born with the extra chromosome known as Down’s syndrome. Some have cerebral palsy or brain injuries from accidents. A few may also be mentally ill, Ihnen said.
Five Work Levels
While some live at home, others have made the transition to a board-and-care home. Every day they come to work at the Mission Viejo center, where they perform such tasks as electronic and mechanical assembly, collating, labeling, sorting, bagging, heat sealing and shrink wrapping. They work in five separate production groups--according to their level--at the 20,000-square-foot facility. They are supervised by a staff of 30, including eight teachers trained in adult education.
In the lowest level, the activity center, it is quiet except for one worker’s loud, measured sighs. A 64-year-old woman concentrates on threading yarn through gift tags. In the next level, an autistic worker rocks back and forth in his chair, poking at the swim paddles his co-workers are assembling.
In a mid-level group, workers with their hair wrapped for protection sit at a table packing contact lens labels. Co-workers passing each other slap hands in greeting. A group sitting at a table bursts into laughter at a joke.
They eat lunch in the parking lot. A few sit alone, but most mingle. Some shoot baskets with supervisors or volunteers.
Clients in the highest level work in the on-site Saddleback Community Enterprises thrift shop or in the transition workshop, where assembly is up to competitive speed and workers use pneumatic tools, drill presses and saws.
Carol Brady, who obtains contracts for the workers, said the first reaction of buyers usually is: I’ve got enough problems, what do I need mentally retarded workers for? She said she points out to potential employers that they can save hiring, bookkeeping and supervising costs by sending work to the workshop or having a crew come out. “We make sure that it’s good business,” she added.
‘A Piece of Cake’
“For us, it was a piece of cake. We’d had years of experience,” said Fuller, who along with general manager Charles Dodd had worked at the Tucson dealership when they first started hiring mentally retarded workers in 1974.
“From the company’s standpoint, it couldn’t be better. To be able to give back to the community what you get out of it and to help people do something they couldn’t otherwise has been absolutely fantastic,” he said.
“They are always happy,” Fuller said of the eight Saddleback center workers. “They’re willing to help. They’re enthusiastic. They aren’t a problem at all.”
Once, however, a worker took the wrong bus after work, he said. Luckily, a bus driver found her on a bench and took her home. She later decided to return to the Mission Viejo workshop. Another Saddleback Community Enterprises worker was fired after dropping his pants and “mooning” co-workers, Fuller said. SCE officials agreed that losing his job would drive home the lesson of how to behave in the real world, Fuller said. He also returned to work at the workshop.
More than independence, the goal of work for mentally retarded adults is an improved “quality of life,” Ihnen said.
The job at the dealership changed her son’s life, said Barbara Wirtz, Scott’s mother.
In general, she said, Scott functions at the level of a 10-year-old. “He’s very perceptive and sociable. He wants to be friendly and meet people.” At the workshop, she said, he had something to do and somewhere to go but was not particularly happy with the work. At the Ford agency, he is freer to socialize with the mechanics and other workers, she said.
Invited to a Picnic
“They’re very, very nice. We were invited to a family picnic, and every person he worked with came over and said hello.”
Scott has become more self-confident since he started working outside the workshop, she said. “He feels really good on payday. He tells me how big his check is,” she said.
She said he saves most of the money in a bank account. Scott said if he didn’t have to, he did not want to reveal what he is saving his money for.
Asked if he had any other thoughts to share about his job, he nodded and paused. Then he replied: “When do we get a raise?” He stomped his foot with pleasure at his joke.
Then he looked up at the blue sky and laughed.
