I am reminded of the passage of the Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973. It was the impetus for us to move from therapeutic arts and crafts to industrial based sheltered employment in the 1970’s and 1980’s because of the influx of federal money which propelled the growth of facility based services.From what I found of other sheltered workshops in the area, Morningside's change was consistent with others. Most, if not all, provide contractual services, as opposed to offering original products like works of art. And the fact that Passion Works originated after the 1970's and 80's shift to contractual work but still based itself on art production is befuddling to say the least. One possible explanation is that it doesn't have the budget that other facilities possess, being located in Appalachia, to perform the large-scale operations that contractual work requires.
A quick glance at the map below will show you that Passion Works also has fewer staff relative to other local sheltered workshops. Green tacks indicate low number of staff, yellow medium and red high. Purple tacks indicate that the number of staff is unknown.
Interestingly, all the workshops in a 45-mile radius from Athens, Ohio seemed to cluster in a "V" formation to the north and south, and the next-nearest one besides Passion Works is in Logan. The latter fact shows that there's not many choices for people with developmental disabilities when it comes to employment in Appalachia. It's mostly either work in the community (doing janitorial work most likely) or don't work at all, and that's a sad fact.
View Sheltered Workshops near Athens in a larger map
Posts
Hey Aaron, nice map. I actually got the chance to volunteer over at WASCO back in high school, and I'm glad you chose to include it on the map. It's really a great experience to work there, as you learn so much about how to work with different types of people. It's interesting that they do everything from piecework projects -- assembling parts for local companies -- to catering and selling jewelry. It's a diversified operation that allows for the workers to have fun and to learn so many different skills.
ReplyDeleteFreakin sweet blog. I really think that Athens students forget about people with disabilities. It's refreshing to see important journalism.
ReplyDelete