 Hi, I'm Denny Amundsen, Director of the State Department of Developmental Services. Our department provides services to more than 100,000 persons with developmental disabilities. This includes children and adults with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism. In today's video, you're going to meet Michael Long, a young adult with developmental disabilities. Like many of his peers, Michael has had to encounter many forms of discrimination in barriers throughout his lifetime. Today you're going to see how Michael overcame some of these barriers in the area of employment and how he excelled in his first real job. Let's take a look together. My name is Michael Long, and I'm a person with a developmental disability. In this room, it's part of history. Why? Because when Chico Sports Club opened up, it was people that are non-disabled realize that they're going to be working with people with developmental disabilities. There were some barriers in the way, and the barriers were fear, understanding and realizing all these people capable of working in an environment as such as this. During the first aid course, people found out that people with developmental disabilities can work in this type of environment, because they can be able to follow directions just like anybody else. And after the first aid course, they found out that they have developed friendship. That can probably be able to last a long time. Also they found out people with developmental disabilities stick to their jobs. What I mean by that is five out of seven people with developmental disabilities are still here today after a year and a half. So we found out today that people with developmental disabilities can live productive lives and being able to connect as human beings. Jeff Stover, former San Francisco 49er, talks about his sports club and the experience of hiring people with developmental disabilities. Well during my football career, I was working out in a club next door that was existing, and I saw Mike Long working there, and I watched Mike for quite some time, and I saw that he was always happy, he was always doing his job with the utmost, and he loved what he was doing. And as I was working out there, it came to be that after I retired from football, I bought that facility, and along with it, Mike Long came with it. I was really pleased to see how he fit into the whole program, how he worked, and when I created and developed the Chico Sports Club that's existing now, I decided that the towel counter and everything that I had created back in the back of the facility, this would be a perfect position for someone such as Mike, developmental disabilities, we could fit them right in, and it has worked out fantastic. My whole goal and my whole club and basically my rest of my life is to make health and fitness non-intimidated and to make it fun, and that goes with everybody that works for us, from our staff to our members to everybody, that everybody that comes in this club, it's fun, and that it's just not for a bodybuilder, it's not just for a weightlifter or a pro-athlete, but health and fitness is for everybody, and to achieve that, it comes from your staff, from the knowledge of your staff, from the service of your staff, from the cleanliness of your club, all the way through, and that's what I've tried to create here, some place that someone can come and work out and have fun. I had a concern when I first put the program in, is healthy people coming in to a club, they're all up, how are they going to perceive a developmental disabled person handing them a towel or something, and it has worked out fantastic, and I really believe that it's due to the people here, you know, they're good country people, they're loving people, and they come into the club and they respect the person that's there, so what it does, it creates, you know, basically a non-intimidating barrier, and these people might come in, they might be stressed out or whatever, and if I was behind the counter, they'd probably let me have it, but having, you know, a disabled person behind the counter, they respect that, and it like calms them down, you know, and they have fun with them. I really believe that they're probably our best employee, and the fact that they are always on time, they're always happy, I mean, they love coming to work all the time, we rarely have problems with them. The jobs plus that we have here has done an absolute fantastic job, they have a coach that comes on staff with them, and we sit down with that coach and we tell them exactly what we expect and what we want and how we want it trained, and they work hand in hand with that individual, and if they can't meet the tasks that we set forth, then they will find someone else and try them to see if they can match those tasks. So in that sense, you know, in the training end of it, I really believe the jobs plus has been our, been a factor for us being so successful too, you know, for other clubs, I would suggest finding some kind of organization that does exactly that, I know there's a lot of them out there, but I think every club is going to be different and unique in how the program would fit into their facility, but I definitely believe that it can fit in at any facility and I definitely encourage it. Throughout the state, organizations including community programs such as jobs plus facilitate supported employment and life skills training for people with developmental disabilities. First I would encourage you to view people as people with abilities rather than disabilities. Supported employment is a relatively new concept, one which has developed over the last five to ten years. I think we've begun to understand how to provide service to people in a way which will maximize their potential for success in the work setting. New employees always have a rough time in the beginning, whether you have a disability or not, and we're there to make that transition a lot smoother. We're there so that people have time to get used to their job and to learn their skills that are needed for those particular job tasks. Our rate of being able to keep someone in a job is a lot higher than it would be for someone who's non-disabled because we really work on the job match. We really work to make sure that the employer and the new employee are going to be able to work together and that they will be able to work in that type of a setting. I'm the job developer for Jobs Plus and it's my responsibility and part of my duty and pleasure to work with people and employers. I start from the habilitation meeting with an individual and from there I get an idea of where they would like to work. Primarily most of them know that we are in here and this is where they would like to work as the sports club, but from that I go out and contact employers, explain our services to them, and talk to them about the advantages of hiring people with disabilities, the fact that they are last longer on the job, they don't call in if they're not truly sick, and this may be a lot of the mess that employers have, one of which being that their workers' comp rate is going to go up. And that's a big barrier for many employers and what they need to realize is people with disabilities are not high risk in that high risk category, that they take their time and concern about their job duties and because of that they do just as good a job as anyone else. Working toward a healthier economy, the Employment Development Department provides information regarding tax credits for employers of persons with developmental disabilities. The idea of the tax credit is to encourage the employment of individuals who've had difficult times in the labor market finding work. It's also designed to appeal to employers and be as simple as possible. My recommendation is that employers who are interested in taking advantage of this tax credit need to call the EDD office, nearest them, get information, educate themselves, and the EDD office can provide them with the services and that they help they need to get started. It's a matter of unfamiliarity. We've lived in a society for a long time that tended to segregate people and so it's more of a fear factor than it is anything else. I think it's very important that there are programs like this to help mainstream individuals who can perform jobs, who can be a help to the community, who can get a self-worth, a feeling of self-worth and accomplishment out of being a contributing member of the society. I guess I didn't really have any preconceived notions about what to expect. It was a new experience for me and I was going into it with an open mind in terms of we'll try it, it'll either work or it won't and it was a team effort between us at the club and Jobs Plus to make it work. Disabled people are not different than other people. They're the same that other people are and they work very hard and very, very, very hard. We try our best. I mean, you should hire them. I mean, they work. They're very conscientious type people. They're very concerned about pleasing. I'm a hard worker because they hire me and I'm a good worker. We need good workers and if they are developmentally disabled, if they're good workers, they should be hired for the position. The experience was pretty exciting. We'd worked with Michael and Michael was really excited about bringing in other individuals with disabilities to the club to work with us in various capacities. I interviewed them really like I would interview anybody. I asked the same questions. Sometimes it took a little bit longer but really I asked the same questions and received sometimes better answers than I get during other interviews. They needed to be able to interact well with our members. They needed to have a sense of service and what they were going to be doing for our members. They also had to be able to physically handle the job that they were required to do. I feel very comfortable working here at the club and with the management, going ahead and doing whatever tasks that they ask of us to do. And at the end of each day, I feel very satisfied. The responsibilities of the staff at the towel counter are when members check-in, they seem to check-in at the front counter first and then proceed to the towel counter where they exchange their card for a key to the locker rooms and a fresh towel each time. They also check out certain things like basketballs, volleyball, kickboards, different things for the other recreational amenities at the club. Our task is to make the members as comfortable as possible. As far as with other employees, I get along fine with them. You know, we are all working toward one goal. They've become very sociable with others and they've got, they've really increased their communication skills. If I opened the club, yes, they would be on top of my list. They're very team-oriented. They work great with every type of individual in the facility. They are a type of people who do not look down on others. I like the people and members and stuff like that in life to help out other people and they need it and they, they like how I help them out. They're a great group. They do a fantastic job and I would be on top of my list to hire them for my facility, yes. I guess I don't really think of it as being an experience different than working really with any other employee because we expect the same things. They give 100% each day, every time, every task. They do an exceptional job. Good people are hard to find. I like to be on time and not late. Get my work done. One of the things that has reinforced my belief in working in this program is the feedback that we've gotten from our members in the community about what a benefit this is to the community and to allowing individuals of all types to have employment. People have a fear of people with disabilities. I think that it comes down to a fear. People feel uncomfortable but I think that the more you interact, the more you see these people, the more you see what they can do, instead of thinking about what they can't do, I frankly am very, very receptive to anybody. They don't limit your possibilities here at all and they're not limiting the disability worker possibility here either. They're so enthusiastic, you know, and they're so responsive when you say hi and mention their name and have some kind of communication that makes it very rewarding. If I were going to open my own health club, I would definitely consider hiring individuals with developmental disabilities. I would consider hiring individuals with physical disabilities. I wouldn't look at that as being something that would keep me from doing that. My staff understands their position of what they're trying to accomplish. You know, we've let all of them know and within those bounds and those realms, everybody loves the people that work for us. It's just incredible. I appreciate that. I always remember you. I always wish you the best of luck. You're going to go a long ways. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's, hopefully, hopefully. As you have seen, Michael Long was truly an outstanding employee of the Chico Sports Club. Today, I'm proud to announce that I recruited Michael away from Chico and now he works for me in Sacramento as an important member of my executive team as the director of consumer services in the Department of Developmental Services. And he's doing a great job just as I knew he would. I hope you'll agree with me that hiring persons with developmental disabilities makes sense. Great bottom line business sense. Everybody wins. Thanks for watching.