*CHP Archives: FROM SHELTERED WORKSHOPS TO SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT

By:

Michael J. Kennedy
Self-Advocacy Coordinator

1988

Center on Human Policy
Syracuse University
805 South Crouse Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2280


Being a consumer and a former participant in a sheltered workshop, I have seen people who work in these places become very frustrated and upset. Most people with disabilities don’t want to be segregated in any case, but especially not in the workplace.

Real places of employment have an environment where people socialize and begin to make new friends with which they can talk about similar interests. They feel like they are not somebody who was put on earth to be looked at as just a disability. When people are segregated in sheltered workshops, they miss out on the opportunities of interacting, working in a meaningful job (with at least minimum wage) and being part of the community at large.

I want to tell you about my past experience at the sheltered workshop. To me it looked like an institution or a warehouse. There were no non-disabled people employed there except for the supervisors, and they only interacted with other staff and not any of the people with disabilities. The people with disabilities only interacted with each other. The staff didn’t look beyond the workers’ disabilities and recognize that they were people. This was unacceptable because the staff was being paid to support and train people with disabilities in skills for their independence.

What I would like to see happen is for government officials to pull the funding out of sheltered workshops and to put the money into supported work instead. The reason why I would like for this to happen is so people will feel like they are doing something good and worthwhile in their life out in the community. If people work out in the community, they develop a wider range of contacts, unlike going to a segregated building every day.

One way of building up supported work is to work with organizations like Parents for Positive Futures, for example. They are a mixed group of parents, some who have sons or daughters who are working in the sheltered workshops but want to find community jobs, and others with children who work in the community. They share a common goal of wanting their children as independent and integrated as possible. This group can give ideas and living examples of people who work in the community who have disabilities.

By working together to increase supported work and people’s awareness, the lives of people with disabilities will improve not only in the aspect of work, but also in recreation, self- esteem, social life, and financial levels. Also people will stop seeing a disability and start to see a human being.

I would encourage any reader or professional to advocate for supported work rather than sheltered workshops. Sheltered workshops don’t give people the chance to learn or grow to their highest potential. In supported employment, they not only get the chance, they do grow and learn.


Preparation of this article was supported by a contract awarded to the Center on Human Policy, Division of Special Education and Rehabilitation, School of Education, Syracuse University under Cooperative Agreement No. G0085C3503 funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education. The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the authors and no official endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education should be inferred.