Sweet Labels 4 you- A mother & daughter business

Shirley and Jenny are a mother and daughter team who created Sweet Wrappers 4 You. Sweet Wrappers is a business making labels for various items, candy bars, gallon and quart cans, clocks, first aid kits, mint wrappers, gum wrappers, sucker wrappers, water bottle labels, play dough and bubble labels. The products are a personalized option of celebration and memory creations. The business began in June 2010 and is located in Beverly, West Virginia.

Sweet Wrappers matches their personal talents, interests, and a shared desire to operate a successful and fun business. The mission of Sweet Wrappers is to provide exceptional high-quality personalized and memorable products that are convenient, affordable and guaranteed to put a smile on each and every customers face! Job Squad assisted in their business start-up by providing funding for initial costs through a microloan. For further information about this business please visit SweetWrapper's Blog.

Jesse's First Week of Sales:
$$ Money In The Bank $$

Jesse Malley is a young man from Gilmer County West Virginia who has tried for seven years to find a job. Since finishing High School he's been unsuccessful, until now. His business just started a week ago, and the photo above shows him holding his first check for gross sales of $191. After business expenses and taxes, he made a net profit of $131. If his sales continue like this for the next three weeks he'll end up earning $563 in his first month of business and projected earnings of over half of SGA (Substantial Gainful Activity) in his first year.

How did he do this in a rural county where unemployment is over 20 percent? It is a fascinating story that we would like to tell in the weeks ahead as this blog chronicles Jesse's Beverages, Bar Rags and Washouse exciting development.

Using an employment strategy referred to by the US Department of Labor as Customized Employment, one of Job Squad's Career Counselors approached local business owners and gleaned, by means of informational interviews, some ideas for employment that Jesse was quite interested in.

After Jesse and the owner of Self Suds Laundromat met together and discussed various employment options, an idea for a business-within-a-business started taking shape. Jesse could maximize his income and build personal wealth by taking the path of self-employment, rather than being a wage earner/employee. (most wage earners in Gilmer County, WV receive minimum wage level pay).

And self-employment would provide the flexibility in Jesse's daily work schedule, as well as job security to accommodate personal health issues that have been preventing him from finding employment in the conventional job market. He would have a customized, tailor made job that would meet his specific needs.
The host business would supply the location/space (brick and mortar), mentoring and staff support, and piggy back Jesse's services onto the Self-Suds Laundromat's services and existing customer base. The synergy and mutually beneficial combination of a full service laundromat, with a bar rag rental service, a frozen beverage service (chosen by popular demand and a survey of the many college students who frequent laundromat), and added capacity of more and larger washers and dryers owned and operated by Jesse within the existing business, has given birth to this one of a kind business. (At least we think it's one of a kind at this time.)

But the big problem almost all businesses face when starting is "Where are we going to get the money?" Jesse is using a Social Security Work Incentive called a PASS (Plan for Achieving Self-Support) along with a $3,000 zero interest micro-loan, provided by Job Squad, Inc. His micro-loan was used to jump start his business, covering the initial purchase of equipment and supplies, while his PASS application is going through the approval process, which can take a number of months when used for starting a small business.

Who would have thought that Jesse Malley would someday be a small business owner? His mom can hardly believe it, as she examines his Business Plan and PASS application.

"As we invest in critical job training, we are giving workers the bargaining power they need to custom-design their jobs around their lives—instead of the other way around."

—Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao

The Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor, is committed to improving employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. To achieve this goal, ODEP established a Customized Employment initiative to build the capacity of workforce systems to serve all customers, including individuals with disabilities. The strategies developed through this initiative can assist all workforce customers who have complex needs and may require more individual assistance to achieve their employment goals. The Customized Employment initiative also focuses on incorporating universal strategies into all aspects of workforce services.

A World In Which People With Disabilities Have Unlimited Employment Opportunities

Congratulation's on your successful first week of business, as the proud owner of Jesse's BBR&W!

Self-Employment: Discovering What Was Always There (Part 2)

In a previous post, I discussed how we began to discover Neil's many skills, talents, and interests and also mentioned how he had been running a hobby business most of his adult life. We ended the post with the statement, "(W)hy not try to support Neil to take his hobby business and, by using existing supports and relationships, step by step, turn it into a "proper" business?"

As mentioned in the post, we started by engaging in Discovery, a structured process that seeks to answer questions such as "Who is this person?", "What are there personal geniuses?", and "What are the ideal conditions of employment." These questions cannot be answered without engaging the local community; we must explore neighborhoods, relationships, activities, interests, and skills. Questions such as "Who is this person?" may seem overly abstract and nebulous and it also may be obvious that employment and community must go together. However, job seekers are very rarely really "known" by those around them. Also, professionals providing support with employment have historically done a very poor job of integrating themselves into the "real life" of their local communities.

We learned that, although Neil had never been an employee of a business, he does provide various services to those in his community for pay, such as lawn mowing (using neighbors equipment and gas), snow shoveling, and other jobs. I spoke with those who spent the most time with Neil, his customers, and others who knew him well and, after a series of conversations, Neil decided to pursue the most obvious theme: "Lawn Care Services."

Neil arranged a series of lawns to mow (for pay), using borrowed equipment, while staff and I would observe. I was able to watch Neil mow a sizable lawn--it took him about 2 hours and took note of the quality of his work (very good) and support needed (not much).

A series of challenges were also noted:

1. Neil did not currently have any equipment and did not have the means to purchase equipment to add some flexibility and options to his self-employment explorations.

2. Neil does not have access to his own transportation. WV's topography is very difficult to hike or bike for any distance with heavy equipment in tow. Without his own transportation, Neil would need to rely on his staff to take him to and from jobs.

The next post will discuss how these challenges are being addressed.

Program helps high school students with disabilities learn employment skills

Program helps high school students with disabilities learn employment skills

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Linking Educational Experiences with Careers

A survey commissioned by the National Organization on Disability found that only 29% of working aged people with disabilties are employed full or part time. In comparison, 79% of those who do not have disabilities are working. Of the people with disabilities who are not currently working, 72% report they would like to be working. Many of our youth are leaving high school without the skills and supports they need to work in the community. It is imperative that students with have access to work-based learning before they graduate to prepare them for employment in the community. There are two acts that address this need: the School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA-PL 103-239) passed by Congress in 1994 and the The Individuals with Disabilties Education Act of 1990 (PL 94-142), revised in 1997 (PL 105-17). Both of these acts assist students to transition to further education and work. However, the STWOA was designed for all students, regardless of abilty.

The STWOA was designed to increase work-based and school-based learning opportunities for all students. The act creates a national framework to assist states and communities create comprehensive systems to helap all students apply classroom learning to high-wage, high-skill jobs or further education, and advocates work-based learning and college preparation. States and communities and developing programs to meet the transition needs of all students. Colleges are also offering a wide variety of work-based learning options for students.

What is a Work-based learning experience?

"A work-based learning experience is any activity that gives a person an opportunity to witness or participate in typical tasks that take place in an employment setting" (http://www.thefreelibrary.com)

Examples of work-based learning:

Job Shadowing-this involves visiting a place of employment and observing employee during their typical duties of a job the student is interested in. This allows them to learn the specific duties required and the working enviroment of a specific job and specific workplace. This experience usually lasts from an hour or two to a full day of more, depending on student interest and the employer

Internship-this is an intense work experience for a specific time period. This enables students to actually perform duties involved in a position. The participant (student) develops skills and performs job functions under close supervision. Some programs offer academic credit for participation in internships.

Cooperative Education-these programs extend the classroom experienc to an employment environment. These are usually offered as part of a specific degree program. These are sometimes paid positions and students typically earn academic credits. An example of this would be a student working as a trainee in a software development company as part of a cooperative education experience in computer science.

Service Learning-in this experience, students gain job skills in community service in non-paid, volunteer service learning experiences. The job skills they gain often help students in obtaining full-time paid employment. An example of service learning would be a student seeking employment developing and maintaining Web pafes could gain experience by volunteering to develop a web page for a place of worship.

Benefits of Work-Based Learning

Work-Based Learning Experiences assist students to:

*Clarify academic and career interests

*Gain academic credit

*Select future courses of study

*Pay for a college education

*Develop skills in relating to supervisors and co-workers

*Test Skills in a job setting

*Build a resume

*Develop a network of potential employers

*Develop relationships with people who can be used as references when applying for jobs

*Students with disabilities gain valuable practice in disclosing their disability and requesting appropriate accommodations


Benefits for employers include

*gaining practice in working with an individual to create a work environment that maximizes productivity and minimizes the impact of the disability

*Confronting and overcoming fears regarding hiring employees with a disability


Full employment of people with disabilities can save billions of public dollars that are now used to support unemployed people with disabilities (Profit from Our Experience, 1995).

Evidence supports the idea that our nations schools are doing a much better job of preparing students for post-secondary education and training than in preparing students for careers. Work-Based learning enables students to link what they learn in school with the work world and gives them the skills and connections they need to gain employment.