Crew at CSU Campus Breaking New Ground

In a small way, the old mental hospital has now come full circle.

Before it was shut down and envisioned as the future home of a four-year college, Camarillo State Hospital was one of the preeminent mental institutions in the nation, a gold-star sanctuary for the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled.

But in all the hoopla over the Cal State campus now under development there, much of that history has been shoved aside. At least that is the way it was until Ruben Venegas and his buddies showed up for work.

In his blue jeans and work boots, Venegas is among 10 people who are developmentally disabled and have been hired to tend the grounds at the budding Channel Islands campus. Short and stocky, with a smile that won’t quit, the 45-year-old Santa Paula man has learned to mow a lawn, sweep a sidewalk and generally spruce up a place that was a haven for people like him for more than 60 years.

And although he was never a patient at the old state hospital, he is among the first to take advantage of opportunities now emerging as the complex evolves into a state of the art university.

“It makes me feel good knowing that I’m working for the things I want,” said Venegas, who has learned a range of landscaping skills designed to help him earn his own way in the world. “I’ve never been able to find the right kind of job to hold onto. But I’ll stay here as long as they’ll let me.”

Linking the hospital’s historic past with the university’s ambitious future, Cal State officials have contracted with Work Training Programs Inc. to put the developmentally disabled clients to work.

The nonprofit agency provides job training to people with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses, helping clients earn a paycheck and build skills aimed at moving them toward independence.

For university officials, the program serves two purposes.

The clients deliver a much-needed boost, at a reasonable price, to the four full-time groundskeepers responsible for maintaining the 630-acre campus. The university pays about $7,300 a month for the hired help.

Moreover, Cal State officials said, they view the job program as an opportunity to make room for the developmentally disabled at a place with a rich history of looking out for that segment of society.

“This gives us an opportunity to give something back to that community,” said George Durta, director of facilities and operations at the campus. “Really, from our perspective, that’s the kind of thing that should happen between universities and their communities.”

For the community of developmentally disabled people, good job opportunities are hard to find.

Not make-work jobs--the kinds of envelope-stuffing tasks often doled out to the mentally disabled--but real employment, the kind of work that means something and puts cash in their pockets and makes them feel as if they are worth something.

For more than 30 years, Work Training Programs has been opening up such opportunities.

The agency has 1,100 clients from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles, about a quarter of whom live in Ventura County.

Its mission is to move clients as close as possible toward self-sufficiency. To accomplish that, job coaches and supervisors teach a host of larger lessons, from how to show up for work on time to how to get along with others.

The agency has placed workers in companies including Thousand Oaks-based biotechnology giant Amgen Inc., Countrywide Home Loans in Simi Valley and the Hyatt Westlake Plaza in Westlake Village.

“It’s not just about getting a job, it’s about getting a job they can hold onto and feel good about,” said Bob Silvers, a job developer for the training program. “They learn the value of money, they start paying their own bills, and in some cases they get off welfare entirely. It makes a tremendous difference in how they are able to live their lives.”

At the Cal State campus, the workers proved to be a perfect fit. In the two years since the state hospital closed its doors, a skeleton crew has been responsible for maintaining the grounds.

As a result, sprawling courtyards, once lush and green, had become overgrown and weed-choked, withering to patches of brown and gold.

So when Silvers pitched a proposal a few months ago to have developmentally disabled workers help out, university officials jumped at the opportunity. Since the crews started working in March, courtyards have been cut back and lawns have been immaculately manicured.

All the activity reminds Raudel Banuelos of the good old days. Banuelos directs maintenance efforts for the university. But he is a holdover from the state hospital staff and remembers when the place bustled with clients, many of whom worked as groundskeepers.

“That kind of work atmosphere brought a lot of satisfaction to me,” said Banuelos, watching one crew tidy a courtyard flanked by sun-bleached buildings. “You can see the improvement day by day.”

Indeed, when the workers first arrived, they knew little about the art of landscaping. Now, under the supervision of job coaches, some are running power tools, pushing lawn mowers and guiding air blowers with the ease of veteran gardeners.

“It’s been the fulfillment of a dream for some of them,” said Lisa Padgett, supervisor for the Work Training Programs’ group supported employment division. “To work outside, to work with power tools and do yardwork, that really builds self-esteem. They have amazed us. They have far exceeded our expectations.”

It is still not known exactly how much each worker will earn. Their pay is guided by a complex state formula. It is based on each client’s productivity and specifies that those who work at 100% will earn $8.25 an hour. The average worker will probably earn two-thirds of that amount.

For many workers, however, the job opportunity is far more important than the money.

Newbury Park resident Julie Brooks has tested the job market before without much success. But through one of the agency’s programs, the 24-year-old woman, who is developmentally disabled, now works half a day at the campus and then receives training in a range of basic skills from banking to budgeting to riding the bus.

“I like this work because it’s outside,” she explained. “It’s a good place to be.”

That sums up the way Ruben Venegas feels about his new job. He is part of a higher-functioning group hired on at the new campus, some of whom are just a step or two away from a more independent work setting.

For job coaches, the ultimate goal is to move any client who is capable onto the employer’s payroll.

But for Venegas, out of work for 13 years and dependent on federal Supplemental Security Income to get by, his goal is simply to get back on his feet. And with good reason. He is married and has an 11-year-old daughter. His wife is in the hospital, so Venegas is raising the girl with the help of his parents.

Each workday, he drops her off at school and then drives himself to work. He likes to say he has never been late for the job. And he hopes the job will eventually be his ticket to a steady income and a stable home for his family.

“I’m really learning a lot of things,” he said. “I like the people here, the supervisors. They’re always telling me to think positively. Never negatively, only positively.”

About This Series

“Birth of a University: Countdown to a Cal State Campus” is an occasional series chronicling the development of a four-year university at the shuttered Camarillo State Hospital complex. This installment focuses on how the budding university is offering new opportunities for a group of developmentally disabled people.