Eddie Arnio has been working 20-24 hours a week at Grafton
Farm and Home Supply since late September 2012. Prior to this gig, Eddie’s work
history comprised of 6 months at the local—now out of business—sheltered workshop.
Eddie has worked hard at finding a job in Grafton, applying
at local corporate and big-box businesses like Wal-Mart and McDonalds every 4
months for the last 6 years. He was told that if he kept applying, kept keeping
at it, his efforts would eventually be awarded with a job—using this approach, won’t
employers eventually recognize his desire to work, his tenacity and
persistence?
After meeting with WVDRS and being referred to Job Squad, Eddie
engaged in some Discovery, a few short term work experiences, and a theme of
technology or machinery emerged. During his work experiences, Eddie operated a
car washing machine, spray washer, and a compactor. We also learned he was
interested in automobiles, in part because his dad once drove a cab.
Conversations with others in the community led us to Grafton
Farm and Home Supply, which, we learned, had a broken stone mill. The broken
mill increased costs—feed that would typically be milled on site now had to be
transported to a nearby mill and Grafton Farm and Home Supply had to pay
for the feed to be milled, gas and transportation costs, and staff time to
transport the feed. With this in mind, Eddie and Southern States began
a conversation on how they could help each other. They agreed there would be
mutual benefit if a new, negotiated part-time job were created where Eddie
would complete numerous tasks, including milling, weighing and bagging feed;
making sweet feed; assisting customers to gather orders and transport items to
their cars (including straw, feed, barbed wire, and many other items); filling
propane tanks, handling chickens (!), and various other tasks. Eddie would also
assist with a getting the stone mill running, using a Compensating Balance Loan in partnership with Job Squad and CWVTEL.
Eddie began part-time work, but he wanted to work full-time.
Grafton Farm and Home Supply couldn’t offer Eddie full-time work based on existing
revenues. Discussions began about other ways Eddie could help the business and
centered around a Hydraulic Sprayer that would help the business meet existing
needs and also be used to offer additional services and generate new revenue.
The owners of Grafton Farm and Home Supply felt they could offer Eddie
full-time hours with the additional revenue generated by the sprayer services.
A PASS was submitted--which will enable Eddie to purchase the Hydraulic
Sprayer (and a few other items)--at the end of September 2012 and was approved
last month (July 2013). Once Eddie purchases the sprayer, his hours will
increase.
A follow-up post will focus on Eddie’s PASS, the new
services offered by the sprayer, and how the sprayer fits into Eddie’s
automobile theme.
Check out this video of Eddie at work:
