New push. jobless rate fot disabled

DAWN BENKO / DAILY RECORD
Project Win-Win coordinator Jimmy Lee of Bloomfield,
who is disabled, was hired by Pathways for Exceptional
Children. He is being trained in special-education
law.
New push.
to 'reduce
jobless rate
fot disabled
Montville-based group
expands its mission,
now offersjob training
BY LAURA BRUNO
DAILY RECORD
MONTVILLE - Three
days a week, Jimmy Lee is
getting out of the house.
Until recently, he usually
was stuck at home watching television.
Last month, Lee, 33, of
Bloomfield, was hired by
the
Montville-based
Pathways for Exceptional
Children,
an
advocacy
group for children with disabilities.
Lee, a quadriplegic who
has movement only from
the shoulders up, is being
'trained by Pathways in special-education
law so he
can help families know
their rights for services in
public schools,
Pathways was founded
in 2003 by parents seeking
to give their children with
disabilities
a social life.
Pathways
created recreation programs where children with disabilities could
play sports,
go to the
movies
and play with
nondisabled
children
instead of sitting at home
ELBALIZ MENDEZ / DAILY RECORD
Jared Levy, left, of
Montville helps Nicholas
Buonauro, 15, of
Rockaway remove leaves
from Melinda Jennis' patio.
• At a gift shop in Mount
Olive, disabled workers
show abilities, A7
isolated from their communities.
Now the all-volunteer
group has set its sights on
the work world, in hopes of
reversing
an unemployment rate stuck at 60 percent for adults with disabilSEE DISABLED I A6
A6 Daily Record, Morris County, N.J., Sunday, October 19, 2008
Disabled
CONTINUED FROM I Al
ities in New Jersey.
To show other companies how easy it can be to
accommodate people with
disabilities,
Pathways
hired Lee and Tiffany
Williams, of Jersey City, a
paraplegic, as the only,
members of their paid
staff. Both work part time
for
Pathways
in
a
Morristown office where
they come up with ideas for
getting work experience for
teens with disabilities, in
addition to being trained in
special-education law.
"I feel like I'm trying to
accomplish something. It's
much more rewarding than
other work I've done," said
Lee. He has worked occasionally making sales calls
and doing data entry work
from his home since he was
injured in a motorcycle
accident 15years ago.
Students with disabilities are graduating from
high schools with little
practical training for entering the work world, said
Melinda Jennis, president
of Pathways.
So she
designed a program this fall
where teens get to explore
jobs that interest them.
Nearly $35,000
Pathways received .nearly $35,000from the Henry H.
Kessler Foundation
and
$6,000 from Star bucks to
have students sample jobs
as a DJ, a landscaper and a
dog groomer. These were
jobs that the teens asked to
try. •
Professionals
in each
occupation donate their
time to work with the teens,
who also are assisted by
,FROM
P
the
state
Education
Department's
Office of
Special
. Education
Programs.
"Pathways
is looking
beyond schools to provide
opportunities for students
with disabilities
to be
included in various parts of
society," Wohle said. "They
are looking at areas of
recreation,
employment
and the community to find
inclusive
opportunities,
and I think that's an encompassing way to think about
this."
Two weeks ago, the teens
in the job training program
were at Jennis'
home
DAWN BENKO I DAILY RECORD
removing dead shrubs and
planting new ones in their
Tiffany Williams and
place. The work was the end
Project Win-Win coordinaproduct of several weeks of
tor Jimmy Lee are disabled adults who are train- planning by the teens and
their mentors.
ing to be advocates for
First they met with Eric
children with disabilities.
Bowne, owner of Collage
in' Clifton,
nondisabled teen mentors. Landscaping
Everyone learns from the who talked to them about
experience,
Jennis said, selecting plants and stones
including the teen mentors, for a landscaping project.
who get to see how they They designed a landscape
'might employ people with for Jennis within a set
disabilities later in life.
budget with Bowne's help.
For Jennis,
this
is Before visiting a local nursintensely personal. Her 10- ery they practiced with a
year-old son, Jacob, has cash register ringing up
multiple disabilities simi- sales and paying for plants.
lar to autism. Through, her
Once all the plants were
advocacy, he has attained purchased, they went to work
skills others never thought on Jennis' backyard. They
possible. He can read at a dug holes for the new plants
second-grade level, write and spread mulch when they
and use a computer, she were fmished
planting.
Then, with clippers, they
said.
"For me, as a parent, I went to work as a team to diswork so hard for everything mantle a dying shrub.
for him, and if he doesn't
have anything to do after all 'Are petrified'
this, what have I accom"People are petrified to
plished if all he does is stay let them do these things,"
home and watch TV for 70 Jennis said. "They are fine.
years?" Jennis asked.
... I don't see why they can't
Pathways' approach is do this."
"forward-thinking,"
said
The program requires
Roberta Wohle, director of the teens to get out of the
ELBALIZ MENDEZ I D{\ILY RECORD
Eric Bowne of Collage Landscaping in Clifton helps Lauri Carabello, 17, of Parsippany
plant a rose bush at Melinda Jennis' backyard. Jennis, president of Pathways for
Exceptional Children, is giving the disabled the chance to learn an employable skill.
house twice a week to
attend
the sessions.
Want to know more?
They are expected to
Pathways will hold a workshow up on time, as they
shop called "Making Sense
of the IEP Process" on Nov.
would for a job; work
15 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
together and solve probat the Morris County Cultural
lems.
Center, 300 Mendham Road,
Before the hands-on
Morristown. For details and
part of the project is
registration forms follow the
tackled, they write busilinks from
ness plans using computwww.dailyrecord.com.
ers and create budgets.
In learning to be a DJ,
they worked on interviewing
a
prospective program, Nicholas will find
client, making music lists something he likes for a
for a customer and creating future job. She said most of
an invoice. Professional DJ the job sampling prospects
Eli Kababa showed them through school are limited
how to use his equipment, to working in a supermarand the teens then organ- ket or hospital.
"His main issues are
ized a 1950sdance for a local
social.
He's a good worker,"
assisted-living center.
Through
Jennis'
pro- Buonauro said. "We're hoping that through all these
grams, Paula Buonauro's
15.year-old 'son, Nicholas, different contacts he meets
has learned basic independ- someone who would consident-living skills that most er hiring him."
During the planting sesparents take for granted
their children will learn. sion, Nicholas worked with
For example, he learned mentor Jared Levy, 17, a
how to answer a telephone Montville High School senand take a messa~e, said ior, to remove a small shrub
Buonauro, of Rockaway. and replace it with another.
"I like the digging,"
They also learned through
Nicholas said. "It gets you
the recreation programs
that Nicholas, who has moving. I like making it
look nice. I want to make
autism, loves bowling.
Buonauro is hoping that the customer happy."
Levy said he's found that
throu h this job sampling
the teens are capable.
Teens capable
''A lot of this has been
new to them, but they
were able to listen, learn
how to do it and follow
through," Levy said.
Jennis
said
there
needs to be a change in
mindsets, both in how
these children are taught
and what accommodations can be made in the
work environment.
In order for Jimmy Lee
to work on a computer for
his office job, his desk and
his computer were raised a
few inches so Lee could get
his wheelchair under the
desk and have the computer at his eye level. Lee has a
device that goes on the
computer and through a
corresponding
device
placed on his head he can
manipulate the cursor on a
screen. He then types
through a tube placed in
his mouth that corresponds
with an on-screen keyboard.
"It's like typing with one
finger, but I'm pretty
quick," Lee said.
Laura Bruno can be
reached at (973) 428-6626 or
lbruno@gannett.com.