TACOMA – A $1.6 million federal grant will expand job-training and placement services for people with disabilities across Tacoma Goodwill’s service area.

Five hundred job seekers with disabilities will be served and 275 people will be placed in jobs over the five years of the grant, according to Tacoma Goodwill CEO Terry A. Hayes. The money to expand the programs comes during the 20th anniversary of National Disability Employment Awareness Month and the first Disability Awareness Month in the state of Washington.

“This is a great day for those who want to go to work and another major step forward in our long history of helping people with disabilities,” Hayes said. “This grant expands and enhances our services to provide specific training, placement and career advancement opportunities in trades where employers will need workers.”

The money comes from a Projects With Industry grant through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, with support from U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and the state Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. First-year funding will total $327,189, or 75 percent of the cost. Goodwill and other partners will add another $81,000. Goodwill is one of 66 organizations that received funding from among 200 applicants.

“Competition for the grant is rigorous and agencies who receive an award have demonstrated their ability to achieve exceptional results,” said Lynnae Ruttledge, DVR director. “Tacoma Goodwill has a long-standing commitment to serving people with disabilities in diverse and innovative ways and it will significantly enhance our partnership while giving employers a much richer pool of skilled and prepared workers.”

The grant would expand opportunities in Goodwill’s Retail and Customer Service Program, Office Essentials Program, and Custodial/Janitorial Skills Training Program. The services would be provided in Goodwill’s Work Opportunity Centers in Tacoma, Longview and Yakima.

“We remain committed to working with people with disabilities because we believe everyone deserves the opportunity of a full life through work,” said Bob Bruback, president of Tacoma Goodwill’s Board of Directors. “Goodwill will continue to advocate for people with disabilities and help reach their goals.”

The need to find work opportunities is a major challenge locally and across the country. According to a recent University of Washington-Tacoma School of Business study, by 2010 the number of unemployed people with disabilities in Pierce County alone will reach 39,400. One national study noted people with disabilities make up almost 13 percent of the working-age population but only 37.7 percent are employed.

“I can do just the same kind of work as a regular guy,” said Michael Raymond, 61. “We should get a chance to work just like anyone else.”

Raymond is in Tacoma Goodwill’s Supported Employment program and has been employed at the agency’s 72nd Street Goodwill Store the past three years. He is a person with developmental disabilities and an example of the type of person who would be covered under the grant.

Raymond is also on the TACID Board of Directors, a co-chair of the Pierce County Developmental Disabilities Advisory Board and through his work with Self Advocates of Washington, helped lobby for Disability History Month in the state.
“Without Goodwill, I would have stayed home and be doing nothing,” Raymond said. “Goodwill taught me to come in and do my job – they treat people with disabilities like they should, they respect us.”

As owner of Smith-Western Co., a company that provides souvenirs and other items for the tourism industry, Skip Smith has employed people with disabilities through Goodwill for more than a decade. He credited Goodwill with organizing the program that supports the company’s bottom line while improving morale among workers.

“Goodwill does a tremendous job of training, placing and providing ongoing supervision of workers with developmental disabilities,” Smith said. “We couldn’t undertake this on our own, but Goodwill has an excellent record of equipping workers with basic job skills that makes it a real win-win.”