Empowering Disabled Individuals: A Goodwill Perspective

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Interview Transcription Interview of Gregory George Shift Supervisor Goodwill Industries (working with teaching disabled work skills) Me: Thank you for doing the interview Gregory George: No Problem Me: First question is, basically I am doing this on the progress that disabled individuals when going to work for agencies like goodwill and ovr; places like that, to see how these individuals go from not really working their whole lives and being in a protective environment with their families to going out and working along with progressing not just on work skills but socially as well. Back to the first question; do you see the difference in disabled individuals when they begin work at goodwill industries to six months later; their very first …show more content…

As time goes on they make friends with the people they work with, just like anybody else who doesn’t have a disability; they do you can see the joy on their faces when they get their first paycheck and knowing they earned this Me: and they worked for it Gregory George: you can see it step by step, my view is if you can teach someone how to clean a bathroom, if they can pick up how to clean a toilet and do it good; that’s improvement. If you come in there and you have zero skills on how to clean a toilet and a bathroom, then in six months you are able to do a bathroom route and do it well; you expect mistakes. Me: like any job Gregory George: exactly, you can see the improvement on them just for the fact that, my theory is just because you got a disability doesn’t mean you can’t function in …show more content…

It’s just a normal nature; it’s a shame because they are afraid of the unknown and makes them miss out on some quality good workers. Me: alright my next question is going to be, what are the challenges they have faced when they first started as a goodwill employee?!, within the first week of starting what are some of those challenges they faced?! Gregory George: a lot of it is nervousness and shy, and the fear of whether they’re going to be able to do the job, and coming into a place where you don’t know anybody along with being away from your protective environment into the unknown. Me: Yeah that can be scary for them I am sure Gregory George: they didn’t know how to ride the bus when they first started, and now they can get on the bus and they can get around; it’s all stuff they never knew they could do. Working in Pittsburgh those buses are not easy; but these guys have overcome it. They’ve learned the buses with knowing how to get to the bus and to get

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