NJ store trains workers with special needs
SOMERVILLE – Janice Wortman is used to people telling her what she can’t do.
After suffering a traumatic brain injury from a motorcycle accident in 1985, leaving the college student in a coma for two months, doctors told Wortman that she shouldn’t bother trying to finish her civil- engineering studies at Rutgers University.
Four years later, she proved them wrong and landed a job at Picatinny Arsenal.
“It was a struggle, but I got that bachelor’s degree in engineering,” said Wortman, who still deals with the lingering effects from the injury.
Today, after decades of being a stay-at-home mother of two, and being laid off from her office manager job in 2009, the Califon resident is looking to get back into the workforce.
But as a person with a disability in an economy with a glut of unemployed people, it’s not easy.
Wortman, however, has a leg up. On Thursday she completed her 15 hours at It’s All Good, a women’s clothing store in this borough’s downtown.
To customers, the store at 91 W. Main St. could be just another boutique selling blouses, accessories and handcrafted soaps. But It’s All Good is a project of Bridges to Employment at Alternatives, a Somerset County-based agency that helps people with special needs find jobs.
The program now finds itself at risk because of a lack of funding.
Director Glori Bine-Callagy said the program traditionally has relied on grants to supplement the store’s sales income. But government agencies that provide some of the necessary revenue are changing the way they compensate such programs.
Bine-Callagy said the organization is trying to raise $30,000 from the public in order to get by until next summer, when the nonprofit will be able to bill the state Division of Developmental Disabilities for its services.
The store and its parent organization provide a service both for people with disabilities and for employers, who stand to reap certain tax benefits for hiring special-needs workers, store manager Diane Gerber said.
Gerber works with clients to prepare them for a jobs in retail or other industries that require workers to have experience in customer service, operating cash registers, receiving and processing shipments, data entry and stocking shelves.
Sometimes, the experience at the store allows clients to discover latent interests. Chris Kolvites, 27, a Hillsborough High School graduate, who was born with cerebral palsy, discovered while working at the store that she enjoys creating marketing fliers and websites — something that she intends to parlay into a career after having spent years being turned down by employers.
“They actually found something I loved and something I’m good at. I’m just annoyed it took six years,” she said.
Wortman said she has been hired four times in the past five years and failed each time, mostly because of her condition, which leaves her fatigued and renders her unable to remember certain tasks without drilling. She lost a job at the deli counter at an A&P, for example, because she kept forgetting to turn on the slicer before using it. A manager let her go from an office job after less than two days because he said it took her a day-and-a-half to learn a task it took others 15 minutes to master.
Gerber said this is common among people with brain injuries; a simple way to accommodate this is to provide such workers with written lists. The program provided Wortman with one-on-one training, which a retailer might not be willing to provide or able to afford. Gerber said Wortman also works best when she is assigned tasks with a narrow focus, such as assembling flower arrangements, which she does with great skill.
Wortman said the program boosted her self-esteem.
“The program, for me, has helped me to get back out into the world,” she said. “I’ve been shut away from the workforce and all alone, so I needed to come out and blossom.”
Staff Writer Sergio Bichao: 908-243-6615; sbichao@mycentral
jersey.com
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