Disabled Find Jobs With Agencies Help
By: Melissa Ostrow
For: Suburban Newsline
View Original Article
For one 21-year-old Prince George's County man, it is important to save up some money, so he works two jobs.
At a Target store the man, who asked not to be identified, hangs clothing on racks and retrieves shopping carts. At the University of Maryland College Park, he works on the mechanical staff.
That may not seem unusual, but this young man has mild mental retardation and is slightly autistic.
"Melwood helped me find a job," he said of the employment agency for people with disabilities that works in Prince George's County and the metropolitan area.
This type of agency is important to Prince George's County because there are 58,000 people in the county with a disability between the ages of 16 and 64. According to the 2000 Census Supplementary Survey, about 60 percent are employed.
In 1990 Prince George's County had 26,523 people between the ages of 16 and 64 with a mobility or a self-care limitation. Of the 2,776 people with a mobility disability, 89.3 percent were employed, according to the 1990 Census.
With these numbers, Prince George's County exceeds national and state rates. According to the 2000 Supplementary Survey, 48.7 percent of people with disabilities ages of 21 to 64 were employed nationwide and 54.5 percent in Maryland. In the non-disabled population, about 80 percent of those ages 21 to 64 were employed, according to Census figures.
The Supplementary Survey gathered data from 700,000 homes nationwide. More detailed data from the 2000 Census will be released later this year.
People in Prince George's County can call or visit the Individuals with Disabilities, a program in the Family Services Department that gives out information and refers people to specialized programs such as Melwood and other similar employment agencies, said Rudy Gawlik, the program's director.
Melwood works primarily with people with mental retardation. It has employment specialists and job developers who look for jobs for people with disabilities, including federally contracted jobs set aside for people with disabilities.
To increase the agency's success Melwood recently became part of a network that Prince George's County's business leaders designed to connect people with disabilities to jobs.
It is a Web site where businesses can list jobs, and employment agencies can post short paragraphs about applicants. The Web site was activated at the end of January.
The Web site is divided into job categories such as secretarial, food services or managerial. Businesses can contact Melwood or other employment agencies that handle the disabled, and the agency will supply a resume.
Melwood already hires about 700 disabled people to do jobs on contract to government agencies or businesses. The jobs range from entry level to supervisory, according to Kathleen Bischoff, manager of Individual Employment Services at Melwood.
Besides helping people with disabilities get jobs, Melwood has a job coach who helps clients learn how to get back and forth from work.
"It's most difficult to find jobs for people who have significant physical disabilities." said Bischoff.
People with physical disabilities who can't use public transit depend on ParaTransit, a door-to-door transit service for the elderly and disabled. But ParaTransit is not always dependable, which is not acceptable for people reporting to a job, Bischoff said.
"It's not the best, but without it they wouldn't be able to get to work," said Bischoff.
Though the county has a better than average percentage of people with disabilities employed, not many people with disabilities work for the county government. The county has about 200 employees with disabilities out of the 6,000 employees, according to the quartile Equal Employment Opportunity/Diversity plan report. The county includes people with diabetes in its disability listing.
Gawlik said the county does a fair job but should do more. "I'd like to see them do active recruitment," said Gawlik.
To reach the Web site that links people with disabilities and jobs, go to: http://www.pgbln.org
