 Director of the State Department of Developmental Services. The video you're about to see focuses on people with developmental disabilities who work in supported employment positions. Under supported employment, job coaches train persons with disabilities to work in the competitive marketplace. Today, about 10,000 Californians with developmental disabilities work in supported employment jobs. They work because they are capable, because they can do the job and do it well. As you will see in this video, hiring people with developmental disabilities makes great sense. Great bottom line business sense. They are outstanding employees, well liked by their bosses, their co-workers and the customers. Let's take a look. I always wanted to be a crazy clerk and I really like it because they really helped me. And because I have my job coach come in almost every day and see how I'm doing and checks on me and she tells me that I'm doing a great job and that makes me feel good. I was very impressed with his smile, his frankness, his appeal to be the type of individual that we needed to be a crazy clerk because he wanted to please. I could tell right off the bat he liked to please people. I think I'll run care for a while because this is a good place. I like it. Right from the president, CEO of the company, all the way down is behind programs of this nature. Everyone who wants to work and be a contributing part of the community is entitled. New things. I went to the interview. I got interviewed right on the spot and she asked me questions and she kind of tried me out a little bit to see if I can do the job and I did good and I started the next day. Each task that I show her, she'll say, oh, let me try that. Let me see if I can do this right. So there's a desire to learn even if it's something that she perceives as being difficult at first. And I don't think there's anyone that can tyrophia ties as well as Wanda at this point and probably not as quickly. How are you doing? I'm doing fine today. How many good times this morning? Yes. Wanda gets to work on time every morning, checks in at the time clock just like everyone else here and goes right to her task. A lot of our program I feel, particularly as a job coach, is education of the public in general. So educating the employer, educating other workers on working with people who have a developmental disability but are not that different from you or me. Do very good with my hands, my boss say. I do good. Gary's been with us now for a little over six years. You know, he's got one speed and that's, you know, continuous, you know, forward motion. You know, he's just always going, always keeping busy working. Work from 11 to 8 every day, five to six days a week. Then one day I'll send it and that's it. He couldn't ask for a better employee. You know, he's a very company loyal person, very loyal to his employer. He'd make sure that all our cars are kept clean, neat, running. The more you tell him the better job he's doing, the better job he just keeps doing. He has real personal pride when it comes to that. I know I'm pretty proud of Gary because I think he's certainly a super human being in my eyes. He does such good work detailing and washing cars. They come out looking beautiful and everybody's very pleased when he's done. I think they purposely take the cars to him because they know what they're going to be like when he's done, which makes him proud. I worked out being a lot manager. So that's how I did. I just kept working. I started from buying work and stuff. That's why I am who I am now. I like being here because I like the animals. How to groom them and how to take care of them. We do a good job on their dogs so they're pleased with that. I'm still getting a hang of it, but I know who belongs to who sometimes. She's right there. She's very aware of the whole program. I've had customers talk to her out there and she's been able to answer their questions. There were times when I wasn't here that she had helped my office person with dogs and having no problem stopping what she was doing and seeing that somebody needed help and promptly doing it. We were very pleased with the program. We were very pleased with the whole thing. It's like trying to communicate with a kid, but they don't talk back. It took me some time to learn the job, but after that, it was a great success to me and came over here to show me what the job was like. You know, a tour. So I said, okay, when this job comes, let me take a chance on it. And I told them, just give me a week or two and I see how good I am on this job. So after the two weeks, we're right falling in place and that's what successful is all about. The most rewarding part of my job is when the consumer finds success in the placement where he's happy and he's as far as he wants to go. The offshoot of that is they find other activities through the coworkers at work. They find other things to do out in the community, social things, clubs, dances. And when they get to the point where they're being promoted and they're happy where they're at, then I'm successful. And I get to see success at each end and I think it's very beneficial. I think not only for the employer, but for the employee. They adapt quickly. They're more conscientious in what they're doing. They're more concerned. And you get better quality out of your work. And so from that, they're dedicated more than the average employee that we have. They're very dedicated to what they're doing and they care about their work and they care about that. And those are the types of people that we're looking for. They said that I'm doing a great, great job helping them select, going to carousels, stuff and seal. And then even I'm a meter too. So when I'm a meter, I offload and meter at the same time and keep the job going. And he can retain because he just remembers everything and he'll come and he'll tell me, this doesn't look right and I say, this sure isn't. And there's a lot of people that don't do that work in there. They won't catch the mistakes that he catches and he's very good. I enjoy working with him. Like I said, he amazes me at the things that he grasps and how quickly he grasps them. I like working with him very too. He's very good. You are really making a social contribution to your community and every time you see the individual there's really a sense of self-satisfaction. And above all else, you've got an individual now that perhaps has a real mechanism because of yourself to become a contributing member of the community. This is the greatest thing that ever happened to me and I love this job very, very much. When I was a manager at the Barnard restaurant, a lot of people like her. They asked for her mostly by name, which is nice. And even at times would ask to a point if she's here today or not. The people that I work around are the nicest people in the world. You can come up, members can come up here and they can start talking with me and I smile and they're always nice. You can talk to them. They're friendly people. I think it does make good business sense. And I think as days go by you're going to find whether to be here or any other business. It should have happened long time ago unfortunately but it hadn't. But yes, I think they've made a very good strive for I'd like to see even more opportunities. It's people that they'll say you're doing good, you're doing great, you need some help. That's always nice to know that you have a friend and the staff and if you need something you can go to them. It's a miracle that don't know how and how it came along but it came. He's an absolutely wonderful worker. He's willing to learn and listen. You have to do customer service you have to concentrate you have to be responsible you have to pay attention. He calms the money and when he's giving back he recounts the money that this is your change and all. He's always like a smiling face and friendly to the customers and you can just think it's very simple even my customers who came from the drive through also say like give our regards to Adam and it's really an honor. Because of their attitudes and their wanting Aaron to be a part of a team Aaron's attitude has really exploded it's been great. First of all I think it's the right thing to do and I think everyone deserves a chance to have a good job. I love this hotel very very much. I love my job I think it's a beautiful place to work and I want people to work here with me that enjoy this place and love it. Is working an important part in your life? Yes. It's very important. What does it bring to you to be able to work and have a good job like this? The friendship. Yes. It is a serious job. I feel comfortable and make those kids happy. I got a call saying that Venetian needed a new housekeeper and I said oh it's gray out I'll go and have the interview and everything and they hired me and I just really wanted to work in housekeeping. Our guests they remark that we do have a program here they recognize that we have a program here and they think it's wonderful so it has been a selling point for us in many respects there's a lot of groups that recognize that we have this kind of program going on here and they think it's wonderful and it's been a success for us because the girls are wonderful. I really love them for telling me I got the job the best thing is my manager being around to answer any of my questions. If you love your job you're going to do a good job no matter what your skill level is and that's why they have been so successful here they've made it easy for me. I could not recommend this program to other employers enough.