STEP in the Right Direction : Social services: The disabled get on-the-job coaches under the Systematic Training for Employment Program.

Nicole Hamelin was a high school junior and a camp counselor for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. when she realized what she wanted to do with her life.

Now, at age 21, she is where she wants to be, working for people who need her.

“For years, I had wished there was more time to do volunteer work” for people with disabilities, she said. “But at that point, classes came first, and every chance I had to work was only part time. Now it is my job and my first priority.”

Hamelin, of Cypress, works for the Systematic Training for Employment Program (STEP), a state-funded program that finds jobs for developmentally disabled people in Orange County and gives them personal coaches to help them on the job and offer emotional support.

The program, which opened its first office in Los Angeles in 1985, pays coaches only about $14,000 a year and requires that they have a degree in psychology or a related field or at least a year of experience caring for a person with a disability.

But Hamelin, who coaches Wendy Moore, 29, and Kathy Lackey, 25, isn’t doing it to get rich.

“I love working with them,” Hamelin said. “They are hysterical.”

Early every Monday through Friday morning, Hamelin picks up Moore and Lackey at their Huntington Beach homes and heads for their bus stop.

Three days a week, the two developmentally disabled women clock in at a Pizza Hut in Costa Mesa. For two hours, they make salads, fold boxes, make pizza sauce and wash dishes. Hamelin remains with them to help gather their working utensils or just to offer a soothing hug when they need it.

“They work well together,” Hamelin said. “Kathy is very helpful--a little too much sometimes. But they are doing fantastic, and I am really proud of them.”

On the days when they don’t work, “we’ll go to South Coast Plaza, the beach or just anywhere where the bus goes,” Hamelin said. “Those are the real relaxing days.”

The STEP program serves about 200 developmentally disabled people throughout Southern California. In Santa Ana, 25 job coaches serve 72 people, said Los Angeles program director Julia Shaull.

“Unfortunately, the number of people we service is limited by the size of our staff,” Shaull said. “Our job coaches are responsible for two--sometimes three--people at one time. But we want to keep the program small because we feel if it grows, we will lose the quality.”

Some job coaches, like Hamelin, stay with their clients all day, every day. But others only make daily visits to their clients at work.

“It is real hard to find employers,” Shaull said. “It takes a lot of persuasiveness and sales experience. And, unfortunately, not all companies have a policy when it comes to hiring people who have disabilities.”

Pizza Hut hires about half of STEP’s clients. The rest work for other food chains, stores and industrial companies.

But STEP’s biggest obstacle, Shaull said, is finding high-quality coaches who stay.

“Mainly, people want to go to graduate school, and they use their experience here to further their education,” she said.

Although Hamelin is attending night college classes, she doesn’t plan to leave the work she loves anytime soon.

“For right now, I am really thrilled being only 21 and in this type of field,” Hamelin said. “A lot of people don’t get to do what they enjoy. I am lucky.”