On a recent Friday morning at Open Avenues, the warehouse is lively with chatter and movement. The employees of the organization -- which offers employment, skill training and job placement services for adults with disabilities -- had a late night -- a group outing to a Naturals game.
"We sure did have a good time," says a young woman to Kelli McWhirt, special events manager and organizer of the trip.
Go & Do
Pints and Putts
When: 7 p.m. Sept. 15
Where: Gold Mountain Mini Golf, 1115 N. Dixieland St. in Lowell
Cost: $100 per team of four
Information: facebook/Open-Avenues
"It was so fun," enthuses another employee.
McWhirt stops by a table where a man is whistling as he puts together a JottoDesk -- computer desks that Open Avenues employees assemble and ship to the New York Police Department for installation in police cars.
"We're whistling while we work," he announces cheerfully. "Except no one is whistling with me! They're all talking!"
Indeed, there is a lot of excited chatter in the brightly lighted warehouse, but hands stay busy as the employees assemble products and packaging for a wide variety of corporations.
"It is very important to understand that, while the vendors are making work contracts with Open Avenues in a manner that is cost effective for everyone involved, they do so with full confidence," says Board Member Bert Edens of the multiple corporations that are in partnership with Open Avenues.
Edens' son, Zak, is an employee at Open Avenues.
"Vendors are literally putting their reputations and businesses on the line with the work Open Avenues clients are doing," Edens continues. "They wouldn't do so without knowing the high quality work the clients are doing. The slogan for Open Avenues is 'Capable People, Quality Work,' and that is so true. They are contributing to the community in ways the average person isn't even aware. Stands for laptops in police cars? They assemble them. Tubes of BBs for Daisy? Check. Fishing lures, from full assembly to packaging? Check. The numbers for price displays at Wal-Mart? The clients break down and count those. They really are making a difference for others, too."
Topping the tables in the warehouse are various wooden contraptions, clearly home-made in nature, yet each has a valuable purpose: to multiply the ability of the employees to increase their per-piece performance.
"If they're not 'disabled for the job,' we pay them minimum wage or a commensurate rate," explains Brenda Neal, executive director. "If you could pack BBs at Daisy for $10 an hour, then that's what we pay, but if they're 'disabled for the job,' then we have to figure out their piece rate."
Open Avenues does its best to maximize the per-piece rate of its employees by partnering with the University of Arkansas College of Engineering. Students from that college are responsible for the contraptions -- called "jigs" -- that help the employees do their designated tasks more quickly. One such jig is the deceptively simple looking box built by the engineering students to help the Open Avenues clients fulfill their Daisy job duties.
"It allows our clients to load 100 tubes at a time, instead of one, by filling the box [with tubes], and pouring the BBs into [them]," explains McWhirt. "Before, they scooped each tube one at a time."
The pride taken by Open Avenues clients in their work is clear by the way they take the time to carefully explain to warehouse visitors what they're doing. Edens says that his son shares that sense of pride.
"The clients at Open Avenues do all facets of the packaging for Ring Snuggies. It's always wonderful to see the joy and pride on Zak's face when he sees a box of Ring Snuggies on a counter. And it gives me a lot of pride knowing that, no matter which Wal-Mart I go to, if I see a box of Ring Snuggies, I know my son likely had a hand in them getting there."
Open Avenues has been in operation since 1975. Formerly the Adult Development Center of Benton County, the organization has had many transitions in its 40 years in operation.
"In the 1970s, things were very different for people with disabilities," says Neal. "We've evolved over the years.
"Our goal is to embrace the changes and make the transitions, but we want to make sure we keep the things that we know we do well, that are still going to be needed. And what better way to train people to go to work and to assess their skills than to have a work center like this one?"
One of the biggest transitions required of the organization is a result of the recently passed Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Among other changes, the act requires more steps to be put in place before an individual can be paid a sub-minimum wage. It also puts more of an emphasis on placing adults with disabilities in an integrated setting.
"The law says that everyone, no matter how significant the disability, should have the opportunity to work in a competitive, integrated setting," explains Neal. "And we believe [in] that, that they should have that opportunity."
Neal says that the organization has recently hired a new employment specialist and additional job coaches to aid with the law's new requirements. Open Avenues will also be further utilizing that partnership with the College of Engineering to develop mechanisms that will better train their employees for competitive, integrated settings.
Says Neal, "We want to be able to assess the clients and their skill sets and their capabilities, but we also want to assess different jobs. What do you have to do to work at Tyson? Do you have to lift 25 pounds? Do you have to stand all the time? We want to have some good data and good information so that we could do a better job at placing people.
"We think it's important to assess what [our clients'] skills are, but also there are these other things that you kind of take for granted," she adds. "Here in the program, we can see how their attendance is, their hygiene, how do they get along with other people, are there behaviors that are going to be interfering with their jobs? There are a lot of barriers for employment, and we need to know what each individual barrier is before we place them. And then we work on those."
"The biggest benefit [of Open Avenues] is the life and vocational skills Zak is learning, as well as the socialization he gets with his peers," says Edens. "They have many different tasks the clients perform, depending on their skill sets and workload. So each task Zak performs as part of his work builds up his vocational skills, with the ultimate goal being to have Zak out in the common workforce, if he is able to do so.
"If not, Open Avenues absolutely provides a quality work environment for him. Most of all, he is very happy there."
Open Avenues receives state and federal funding, but it also relies on grants and private funding to make up budgetary shortfalls that occur when previous grants are eliminated or when new legislation -- such as the WIOA -- requires additional staff funding. They're also losing their United Way funding due to a shift in focus of that organization. They're launching a brand new fundraiser called "Putts and Pints" to help fill those gaps.
McWhirt says the idea was conceptualized by Neal and Kelly Sampson, the organization's major gifts director, at the Open Avenues annual golf tournament fundraiser last spring. "They said, 'What do you think about doing a putt-putt golf tournament?"
Laughs Neal, "Because I don't play golf, but I can play a mean round of putt-putt!'"
The event will be held at Golf Mountain Mini Golf in Rogers. Tickets are $100 for a team of four, which includes locally brewed beer from Ozark Brewing Company, snacks and prizes.
NAN Profiles on 08/28/2016