Angela Calzone's Vision:Integrating disabilities into the workforce

Welcome to Why Not Me the World? Podcast hosted by
Tony Mantor, broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join
us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will
make you laugh, some will make you cry. Real life
people who will inspire and show that you are not
alone in this world. Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance,
and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi,
I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me the World?
Joining us today is Angela cal Zone, President and see
of Inroads to Opportunities, an organization dedicated in supporting individuals
with disabilities, both visible and invisible. They provide training and
assistance to facilitate a seamless transition into the workforce. Angela
brings a wealth of knowledge and we are delighted to
have her with us today. Thanks for coming on.
We're delighted to do this.
You would tell us a little bit about what you do.
We are in Roads to Opportunities and we are in
five oh one c three nonprofit organization been around about
sixty six years and we support individuals with disabilities, whether
they're visible disabilities or invisible disabilities. So what does that
mean that means physical, mental health, behavioral health, intellectual developmental disabilities.
And we take folks as young as sixteen in our
various programs and they can stay with us through returns,
vironment and beyond.
What prompted you to get into this line of work.
So I had a management consulting practice for many years,
served clients in both New Jersey and New York City,
and this agency was one of my clients.
We used to do strategic planning.
We do a lot of training for their staff, help
them with the marketing. And you know, we had other
nonprofits throughout New Jersey and New York that we worked with.
But something about this place really appealed to me. The staff,
you can tell, genuinely cared for and supported the individuals
that they served. The longevity of people working here was
really impressive. You had young people working here from their
graduation from college right through to getting ready to retire.
So it was really impressive how much blood, sweat and
tears the staff really put into caring for and supporting
the individuals that they served. I also was intrigued by
how happy the people who participated in these programs were
when I visited. They were friendly, they were engaging. They
were engaging with each other. They had such an extraordinary camaraderie.
It was just an overall very impressive place. And I
just you know how when you walk in the door someplace,
you're like, yeah, you know what, I'm not leaving so
something there's going to be this connection here and I
and for a while, I served on the board for
about a hot minute, and then my daughter took ill,
so I had to I couldn't really make a commitment,
a volunteer commitment like that, but oh, we stayed in touch,
always served them as a client. And then when I
got word that the current president and CEO was going
to retire, that's when we started the conversations about how
I might fit in to the future of this place.
So it has been an incredible, great adventure, and I
loved the mission, the vision, the people. Couldn't ask a
better place to be.
That's nice. Now, how long have you been there?
I'm here five years. I joined two months before the pandemic.
What are some of the changes that you've seen from
when you started to what it is today.
I'm not a social worker. I don't come from the
mental health or social services space. I'm a business person,
serial entrepreneur. I've also worked for large and midsize companies,
national multinational companies. So what I've brought to the table
is the business acumen that I think may have been lacking,
and not just here, but in a lot of nonprofits
throughout the country. Through no fold to their own, I
think they're very focused on delivering quality programs and services,
which of course is the priority, but maybe not as
much attention is paid to what's our growth strategy, what's
our back office look like, what does our bottom line
look like, so we can keep the lights on. Having
brought a lot of that business acumen and sort of
corporateness to the agency, I've seen a big shift in
how we market, how we develop business and sponsors, and
just really it's a very different way that we're engaging
with the community.
Now.
We are out in the community, and that's the whole
purpose of this place is to fully integrate our folks
because they are your brothers and sisters, and your sons
and daughters, and your neighbors and your friends. They're not isolated.
People with disabilities are part of the community, and so
we are out there in full force engaging with local politicians.
We volunteer for things. We're at the movies, we go
on trips, we're at the supermarket. We're learning life skills
and vocational skills, and we're getting jobs in the community.
We're just citizens of the world, just like everybody else.
So how have you grown? How many people work within
your organization?
We serve approximately four hundred individuals each year with a
variety of services. We've got school to work transition programs.
We've got pre vocational programs. We've got job development, job
coaching where we're on the job with our folks, supporting
them and making sure that they understand the work that
they're supposed to do for their employer. We've got full
complement of mental health services. We even have a contract
packaging operation here that we run. Also a full service kitchen.
We have training programs where you can earn a certificate.
So we've got quite a robust series of programs and
services here. That said, with us serving four hundred individuals
each year, we're a suburb of New York City and
Union County, New Jersey. I see us in the next
five to seven years doubling that number because there's such
a great need in our area in our community. That
and we've got amazing people in amazing services, so there
really isn't any reason why we couldn't be doubling that
number in the next five years.
What's the criteria to get into your service, what's the
process they have to go through, and how do you
handle it so that you know that it's a good
fit for both them and your company.
That really depends on how they're referred and their funding source.
Sixteen to twenty one year old crowd, they are coming
right from their high school that we are considered an
out of district placement for individuals who have intellectual or
developmental disabilities. If a school system or a school district
doesn't have a robust enough special ed program or services
that can support an individual who's got some more complicated
challenges or disabilities, then they can outsources them or place
them out of district. With us, we don't provide the
academic education. We provide the life skills development, getting them
ready potentially for employment, exposing them to different jobs and
careers out in the community. We're really giving them that practical,
real world how to negotiate the day to day and
then what it looks like to start looking for a
job and to be employment ready. I think personally, this
should be a curriculum in every school district in every
part of the country, and not just for individuals with disabilities,
but for all kids, because how difficult is it when
our kids are getting ready to graduate. They don't know
the first thing coming out of high school about how
to put a resume together or what to wear on
an interview, What are the right things to say? How
do you respond when the interviewer is asking you questions
what job you really think you want?
What do you like and not like?
What have you been exposed to coming out of high school?
And you have no clue most of the time. I
think this is an advantage for not only individuals with disabilities,
but all kids. But we focus on the idd population
and we've had great success with these kids.
So is your situation like a vocational school where someone
will come in and learn their craft? How long do
they have to learn it? What does that process look like?
They can stay with us In New Jersey you can
remain in high school. If you are diagnosed with intellectual
or developmental disabilities, you can stay in high school until
you're twenty one years old. So that you have ample
time to prepare for your transition into the workforce or
if you're going to transition into a college or other scenario.
So they can stay with us from ages sixteen to
twenty one in that particular program at twenty one school
district graduates them, and then they can move to a
couple of different programs that we have here. If they
are ready for employment, we put them in our employment
department and we work with them on again getting ready
to interview. Let's get a resume and a cover letter together.
You've had some exposure to different types of jobs and careers.
What do you think you might want to do. Let's
get you your first job now. If they're graduating and
they're not quite ready for employment, we have another program
called Transition Plus where it's really an extension of the
school to work transition program where they can spend two
additional years really learning life skills, getting some pre vocational skills,
and again more of the same, being exposed to different jobs,
practicing different jobs, having speakers come in and work with
them and talk with them about different career types and
what kind of qualifications that you need to be able
to take a job in these areas, so it's just
an extension of almost like a community college. We get
those extra two years of exposure and then hopefully at
that point they're ready to move into employment. And if
they're not, we have other social programs that they can
be a part of.
I should say, so.
Do you have people or organizations that you work with
so when the client goes through your classes, when they're finished,
they have maybe a job to go to.
Absolutely, we do.
We work with local employers throughout the county. Again, it's
got to be a right fit. They've got to have
a need for an employee, and then we've got a
roster of folks that may qualify for that job and
we bring them together. It's almost in a way like
we function as an employment agency, but we're not getting
any kind of payment from the employer. We're funded by
the State of New Jersey. So yeah, we'll work to
do an employer employee match and we navigate them through
the whole process. There's some tax credits available for New
Jersey employers to take advantage of if they hire an
individual with a disability. It's a win for everybody. Really,
they're getting a great, qualified, trained, loyal employee, they have
the opportunity to benefit from tax credit, and our folks
are getting a job that they will do well at,
have sport from us on a continuum, and have a
job that they love, and they can make money and
start to build their lives like any of us would.
Want to do. With any company that does things like
you do, there's always bumps in the road, challenges to overcome.
What were some of the challenges that you faced initially
getting this started, and further, what are some of the
challenges that you face day to day now that you've
been up and running for a while.
We've been doing this for like I said, about sixty
six years in various forms. Of course, the agency is
at its largest right now. So I think there's a
lot of different challenges, perception being the greatest one from
an employer's perspective, and having been an employer, I think
as a business owner or a business manager, you're always concerned, Okay,
if I take a person on who has a disability,
what's that going to cost me? How much do I
have to make in terms of accommodation? Is it going
to disrupt the workflow of my other employees? Are they
going to have to compensate or overcompensate for this individual.
What are my customers going to do if this individual
maybe can't interact or communicate in a typical way. There's
a lot of concern and worry on the part of employers.
And also in New Jersey, our minimum wage is like
fifteen dollars and forty nine cents. These days, we're finding
employers are looking for a person who could not only
do one or two tasks, but they want them to
do the whole roster of responsibilities. And sometimes our folks
may struggle with that. Those are a big part of
the challenges that reception. But we work very closely with
our folks where they're on the job with them, oftentimes
where they're supporting them. So we do a lot about
in the job training that the employer doesn't have to do.
We're always there when there's a need.
You mentioned you have a contract for packaging. How does
that work?
So like any other company, we do a hand assembly
and shrink wrapping, we do we have shipping and receiving,
so we can do a number of things and we've
had some really great customers and we continue to enjoy
that benefit. And so we have a marketing director and
a marketing program goes out and gets new business. And
we also have recurring business for many years. And our
folks work in this packaging and assembly company that we
have and they'll do anything from a slight assembly typically
not something not anything too heavy. For example, we've got
a customer who as an importer of Italian foods, and
one of the things that we do here is we
remove the label.
But tomato sauce cans. It's large tomato sauce cans that
you see at Costco and BJ's.
So those cans will come in directly from Italy and
we'll get them in our shipping and receiving department. We
have to put them on our assembly line, de label
the Italian label, and rewrap them in the label of
the company that is our customer, and then we get
them ready to ship off to whatever big box store
they're going to be in Costco, Bjay's, Sam's Club, et cetera.
Your facility seems to cover a multitude of things, which
is really good. You've got the packaging. I noticed that
you had something about cooking. What does that entail and
how does that work for them?
We do so we have a training program. I'm here
that if an individual signs up for it and goes
through the training, it's about an eight or nine week course,
they are able to sit for a test and get
their Serf Save Food Handlers certificate, which is a wonderful
thing to have when you are looking for a job
in the food industry. That's often a requirement either to
get the job or you have to take that test
once you're on the job within a certain period of time.
So our folks are then able to work in restaurants, cafeterias,
within hospitals, nursing homes, and school district, industrial and commercial kitchens.
It's a great program and it was recognized by the
National Restaurant Association too, because it's surf Saved certified.
I notice you have evaluations. What does that encompass? Are
you evaluating what they can do, what they can learn
to do, what sad process look like.
Yes. All of the things that we do here.
We want as part of our mission is to lead
to work, to lead to meaningful, sustainable employment because that
is what allows us to live our lives. We have
a good job, we can pay our bills, we can
have a nice place to live, our folks want the
exact same thing. So the evaluation process can take place
at any point in time in getting ready for employment,
or maybe it's a reevaluation they want to make a
career change or a job change. So the evaluation process
is very vocationally based. For example, if we've got a
high school student who's getting ready to graduate, it's time
for them to have an evocational assessment. And what we
do is we look at their skills, abilities, competency areas.
We also evaluate what it is that they like, what
they feel connected to in terms of avocation. It's a
very comprehensive process. But what the result is almost like it.
I wish I could have had an evaluation coming out
of college because it really helps inform and provide you
with a roadmap in a way, on how you can
be successful. Things that you're good at, things you need
to work on, areas of interest that you have. But
it's very engaging. Is a great tool.
Yeah, that sounds really good. I noticed you have janitorial
you have several other things including forklift training. What's that
training look like?
So we have the OSHA Forklift Training is a certificate
training program like the surf save food handlers, our janitorial
maintenance program, same thing. That's one of the training programs
where you can secure a certificate. The other types of
vocational learning that we do. We also have some of
our folks practicing in our workshop, which is the assembly
and packaging, and those folks will go on to work
in manufacturing or in warehouse distribution. We also go out
into the community and have them do jobs sampling so
that they can learn while they're doing in retail or
in a hospital setting as a porter or an orderly.
Really depends on what the individual's interest is, and so
we'll create a plan around them to accommodate that vocational interest.
So basically that's just another form of getting out there
in shadow working how wide, and that this the shadow
working encompass.
Again, it's driven by the individual. If we have someone
who comes in and who is passionately interested in, gosh,
I don't know, working in a bakery, we will dip
into our network in the community and say, okay, where
can we find a bakery who will accommodate us so
that we can do some initial job sampling. Where can
we find a bakery who's got an open position for
this person, maybe we have a bakery contact where we
can evaluate just because we like to do something doesn't
mean we're necessarily going to be really good at it,
and so we would find a bakery where we can
work with that person for maybe twenty five day period
or something like that on site and evaluate whether or
not that's really an appropriate pick of a profession for them.
So do you work with autistic people as well as
those that might have mental health issues?
Absolutely so with autism that falls under this classification of
intellectual or developmentally disabled. But we do have folks that
are have challenges with mental health. We have folks that
are blind and visually impaired, any combination of the wheelchair bound,
the folks that use a walker, folks that have CP.
So it really runs the gamut.
Yeah, that's great, pretty inclusive. So how is your percentage
of those that come in learn and then those that graduate.
Do you have a high success rate of graduation as
well as a high success rate of getting people valid
work right?
But really depends on the program. With our contract packaging,
for example, they can be here two years, they can
be here thirty five years.
It really it's up to them.
Because employment for everyone is a choice, so you choose
where you want to go and what you want to do.
In terms of our school to work transition programs, our
retention rate is incredible and every year we're graduating students.
Now sometimes the class maybe only five people, class might
be fifteen twenty people. And again when they're twenty one,
if they've hit all their milestones, they're going to graduate.
And I would say ninety five percent of our folks
that go through our school to work transition program graduate
our program and either go on to another program to
hone their skills or go out and secure meaningful employment.
That's great, and everyone wants to work. What's the best
way for people to find you and contact you?
We have a website, We have a social media presence.
Our website is inroads two too, dot org and on
there is a list of all of our services, all
of the wonderful activities that we do, all of the
news releases because we're constantly in the local media, which
we really enjoy the attention and affection that we get
from the local community.
And of course there's ways to donate.
That's great. What would you like to tell our listeners
that you think is very, very important for them to
know about what you're doing and the accomplishments that you've
had over the years.
Probably the most important thing is our mission, and that
is everyone who wants it deserves the right to employment
an equal shot at getting a job and keeping a job,
irrespective of disability. If they're qualified and capable and they
have the supports, they're going.
To be an amazing employee.
And that's really I think there's a lot of misconception
around that. That's what's most important to us, that everybody's
got a shot if they want it at a great,
meaningful job.
Yeah, that's great. I really appreciate you taking the time
to come on.
Thank you for having me.
Oh it's been my pleasure. Thanks again. Thanks for taking
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