Author: John Mallaney

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. It’s a great time to stop and appreciate the talents and gifts the people we serve have to share with our community. You’ve probably recognized some of the people on the job out there in town and some you will never even know had some help from us. They had non-apparent disabilities and didn’t choose to share that publicly. It’s all good.

If you know someone who needs help finding a job, have them give us a call and ask for Sherri. It can be anything from depression to a developmental or physical disability. Or, if you’re an employer, give Sherri a call for ways she may be able to match someone up to enhance your team or fill in the piece you never even realized was missing. Life is short, and we spend a lot of time at our jobs, so why not have people around that make it a good day.

This is big news and it will freak a bunch of you out. This means that in the year 2029 we will no longer be able to pay people piece rate for Workshop jobs. Say it out loud: 2029. There are five years to plan and adjust and figure out how best to do things and make sure people are getting the vocational supports they want and need. This has been coming for more than a decade. The difference is that we finally have an exact date. This is the reason way back 15 years ago Streator Unlimited did the RICES grant and become certified in Customized Employment and why we became a pilot site for Customized Employment contracts with DRS when those began. We’ve been working to make sure we’re ready for changes in the service system so we can keep doing a good job well into the future.

The intention of this legislation is for people to work in the community rather than at workshops. It’s a good intention. The practicalities of that, as we know, are a different matter. The realities of taking 10 people working on a job paid per piece with Jeanne or Leesa running it are different from 10 people all finding a job in the community where an employer will pay them minimum wage. And the resources it takes to accomplish that in a way that feels good to everyone are much more intensive (and expensive).

What that means is we’ll need to put a lot of thought into what we do with our workshop (just work with people who can work at a minimum wage pace? figure out some kind of blended operation? close it and move into purely placements with community employers?). We’ve been preparing for this for a long time, and we’ve got five years. Don’t freak out.

There is one thing we know we’ll need. The rates the state pays (even with the increases in the legislation) for competitive employment services are too low. That will have to be part of the advocacy related to this legislation.

There is one other thing we know. Things change, and not all change is bad. 70 years ago if you had a child with an intellectual or developmental disability you might have been told the best thing to do would be to send them away to an institution, far away from everyone and away from society. Then groups of parents, families, and community leaders said no to that and begin creating what would become group homes and sheltered workshops/day programs, so that their family members could remain in their community. 70 years from now maybe there won’t be anything “special” about having an intellectual or developmental disability aside from some support being available when needed to be fully participating as an individual in every aspect of work and community life. It’s already happening and we are already a part of that. We will greet the future and find the good it holds for Streator Unlimited and the people we serve.

The PUNS is the state’s way of signing up to get funded for Medicaid Waiver Services such as CILA (group home), CDS (day program) or HBSS (home based supports. It’s something very important to do when you have an intellectual or developmental disability and are getting near to leaving school. They have prepared a video to explain the process, which is here.

One of the ways to support SU is by registering your Kroger card.

Each time you shop at Kroger, a donation will be made to SU. Recently we received a donation of $137.15 representing 54 households! Aside from signing up online, it requires no further effort on your part and costs you nothing.

How to help:

• Scan the QR code à or visit Kroger.com to sign-in or create your digital account.
• Make sure your Kroger Loyalty Card information is updated in the ‘My Account’ tab. (If you don’t have a Kroger Loyalty Card, just pick one up at any Kroger store!)
• Click the ‘Community Rewards’ tab.
• Locate our organization and click ‘Enroll.’

Each time you shop at Kroger with that Loyalty Card number, donations from Community Rewards are made to us!

It’s that time of year once again for the annual State of the States Report. The data lags by several years, since it takes awhile to come in, but if you click on the pull down you can find Illinois. There’s a lot of complexity in the data, but the telling thing is the turnover rate for DSPs (direct care employees) both statewide and nationally. It’s at crisis levels pretty much everywhere. Specific to Streator Unlimited, we’re much more fortunate than most. That’s not really because it’s easy for us to hire new employees, but because the ones we have tend to stick around for a long time, and we’re very glad and grateful to have such a dedicated group of people.

The full report can be found under “Resources” as “2023 Key Findings.” It contains recommendations for improving the service system. Absent this year is the state rankings, which probably saves some embarrassment for Illinois, since we have always ranked near the bottom.

What about the current environment, since much of this data is pre-pandemic? The governor proposed funding for a $1.50/hour wage increase for DSPs effective January 2024. Now the Illinois House and Senate develop their own budget proposals, then all three have to come to agreement on a state budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Anything can happen, and the truth is, we need more. We need to get decently ahead of the rising minimum wage with our funding. The work we do demands skill, intelligence, compassion, regulatory compliance, paper, people, and is so important and impactful. Our employees, and everyone doing this work, deserve to be compensated commensurate with that.

We’re hiring! Did you know that 26 of our 59 employees have been here over 10 years? That’s because we’re a great place to work and live the values of our mission to serve people with disabilities. You could be working here in Streator with a job you love around people who love their jobs. What could be better? Oh, $1/hour raise January 1, 2023 as well.

Stephanie and John were featured on the NCI Works podcast, episode 44 on this page. They give an overview of SU’s services to people with disabilities, to businesses to hire them, to the great jobs providing these services.