wfn.org | UMNS# 05045-Jobs program helps fill gaps for youth with disabilities

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Jobs program helps fill gaps for youth with disabilities

Jan. 19, 2005	 News media contact:   Fran  Walsh * (615) 742-5458*
Nashville {05045}

NOTE: Photographs and a UMTV report are available at
http://umns.umc.org.

By John Gordon*

LONGVIEW, Texas (UMNS) - Preparing a resume, tracking down leads and
getting ready for interviews can make searching for a job a challenge
for anyone. The process can be even more challenging for the 53 million
Americans with disabilities.

"They're falling through the cracks when they graduate from high
school," says Debby Puckette, who saw that firsthand with her own
family.

She founded Real Jobs for Youth, providing training and encouragement
for young people with disabilities and becoming an advocate for
employers to hire them.

Puckette relied on her faith as a United Methodist to start the
non-profit organization two years ago, trying to fill a gap left by
other agencies.  She works with students and former students ages 14 to
29.

"The average age that goes to these (other) agencies is 30," she says.

"What happened to the youth?  Where are the youth?  Well, they're on a
waiting list."

Puckette, who has two sons, is a member of First United Methodist Church
in Longview.  A conference she attended - on how parents of children
with disabilities can become advocates - was the turning point that
inspired her to start Real Jobs for Youth.

She began the operation on a shoestring - working on a kitchen table in
donated office space. She later moved the office to a community center
and then into a building owned by the East Texas Council of Governments,
which administers the grant that provides most of her funding. The grant
helps with training as well as transportation - a big need for many
workers with disabilities.

Puckette's program is serving a dozen youth. The key to success, she
believes, is involving a team of schools, families and businesses in
preparing youth for jobs.

She started by helping her youngest son, Mark, 20, who has autism.
After months of searching, he landed a part-time job at a department
store's national distribution center.

"I was very excited," he says. "I worked hard to find a job."

Mark saved enough money to buy a car.  He is putting his earnings into a
savings account in hopes of attending an arts school in Georgia and
getting a bachelor's degree.

But Debby Puckette knows a job means more than a paycheck. It means a
"rise in self-confidence, the willingness to go ahead and risk the other
things that they might want to try," she says. "You have that dream -
well, go for it."

Her young clients face such obstacles as learning disabilities, hearing
and visual impairments, mental retardation, autism and cerebral palsy.
Sometimes employers make special accommodations, such as providing
large-type computer monitors or ramps.

Employers can receive tax credits for hiring workers with disabilities.
But Puckette says her clients are not asking for favors or "pity jobs."

"A business is going to hire you because they need you in that position,
just like anyone else," she says.

The search can be lengthy. Puckette says it takes an average of six
months for a young person with a disability to find a job - and that's
with a high-school diploma. Without one, the search can take a full
year.

Real Jobs made a major difference in the life of Toni Phillips, 23, of
Longview.  Phillips dropped out of school in 10th grade because a
learning disability made it difficult for her to pass a geometry course.

"I was just at home, watching TV, relaxing on the couch and not really
doing anything with my life," Phillips says.

Now she works two part-time jobs - at a telemarketing company and a
local newspaper - while attending adult literacy courses and working
toward her high-school equivalency degree.

"It made me a better person," Phillips says. "I'm able to help out
around the house, to buy the things that we need, groceries.  I'm
definitely happier."

She is also taking courses to become a nursing assistant. Her dream is
to turn her love for scary movies into a profession by becoming a movie
writer and director, perhaps the "female Stephen King."

"I'm able to take one step at a time, day by day, to reaching my
dreams," she says.

Puckette is not afraid to knock on doors to help her clients reach their
dreams. She networks with employers and encourages them to hire workers
with disabilities.

"I feel very, very passionately that, yes, all people have value," she
says.

Puckette believes Real Jobs is a program that can be duplicated in any
city across the country.

"It makes good business sense to hire someone with a disability," she
says. "And it's good for the community.  It's a win-win situation."

# # #

*Gordon is a freelance producer and writer in Marshall, Texas.

News media contact: Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5458
or newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org