Championing Supported Employment (Part 2): The Journey of JR Stevens

In this episode, we are picking up where we left off with JR Stevens.  Join us as we illuminate the strengths and potential of individuals like Mike, who has Williams syndrome, and show the world how tailored education and employment can significantly enhance their lives. Mike's story is one of perseverance and the remarkable impact of aligning work with one's innate abilities, underscoring the need for long-term, stable employment pathways that not only embrace but celebrate the unique talents of those with disabilities. We advocate for change, raising expectations, and fostering a sense of self-worth that comes from meaningful societal contribution.

We also want to highlight the intersection of innovative approaches in curriculum to meet student individual needs by highlighting Functional Academics by Specially Designed Education Services, and author Suzanne Fitzgerald, we spotlight innovative educational strategies that are reshaping the future for young adults with moderate to severe disabilities. 

Our discussion ventures into how skill programs bridge the gap between education and meaningful work, offering insights into the transformation these initiatives bring at a personal and societal level.  We explore the tech industry's role in setting an example for inclusive hiring and reflect on the collective responsibility we all share in nurturing an environment where every individual has the opportunity to thrive. Join us for a heartfelt dialogue that champions inclusion and the incredible potential within the developmental disabilities community.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to part two of our conversation with JR Stevens. In this episode we delve deeper into the inspiring journey of JR and his perspective on empowering individuals with disabilities. Join us as we continue to explore his experiences, insights and advocacy efforts in creating inclusive opportunities for all opportunities for all. I think when the expectation is raised and capitalizing and really focusing on a strengths-based approach with people with disabilities, that becomes the number one benefit is really personal self-worth and feeling that, that confidence that you have a place, that you are welcomed, that supported employment opportunity really highlights the importance of those things.

Speaker 2: 0:48

Yeah, no, and I'll give you just kind of not to fast forward a bit, but one of the individuals that's been a lifelong friend and I consider him a brother, we'll call him Mike is a gentleman with Williams a disability. It's a very interesting, challenging, but I had begun tutoring Mike back in high school and I don't know if you've had the opportunity to work with folks with Williams, but one of the great attributes about them is their social skills are off the chart. In some ways they're more developed and have greater aptitude than we do. I'll give an example my friend Mike.

Speaker 2: 1:21

Anytime he hears a song once, he will immediately remember all the lyrics, who that artist was, whether it's something he was passionate about or not, and never forget it amazing skills that way, and also a big room of strangers, and in comes the cocktail party personality mike would immediately will have engaged 50 people in the room and already have a bunch of new friends.

Speaker 1: 1:43

I love it, I want to hang out with mike mike in the room and already have a bunch of new friends. I love it. I want to hang out with Mike. Mike is the best.

Speaker 2: 1:46

And so I watched him originally and I didn't capture his life story in my dissertation because it was more personal and that was just kind of Mike and I. We have our own history together and we're great friends and I wanted to kind of keep my research outside of him but take what I learned to see how I could help benefit him.

Speaker 2: 2:09

But anyway, he was I guess the first example I saw, someone that clearly would have been better suited with a more individual, customized curriculum, starting in elementary school, junior high high school, much higher aptitude, somebody that could go into trades right away, that's a hard worker, that's very dedicated, never misses a day of work, and but oftentimes if they were paired in a group with folks farther more into, more complex in the spectrum, with not as much capability as he, as I would say, the tide would rise or lower depending on who he was around at what time.

Speaker 2: 2:43

And I saw Mike needs more. He can't be stuck here forever with a real low bar for expectation, because you mentioned a moment ago, if you don't challenge them, then they'll still stay right at whatever that minimum standard is that you're giving them or they may regress. And I saw that too. Right, when we graduated high school, mike went to a academy down in Arizona. That was kind of a transitional experimental program where it was basically folks with various developmental disabilities would live together in a home dorm room. I would say Okay, and generally higher on spectrum, but not necessarily the case. But they clearly did not need, you know, hour to hour to minute physical attention and support to do what they were doing. But anyway, it was not a good experience for Mike.

Speaker 1: 3:36

And.

Speaker 2: 3:37

I think in his circumstance, just being far away and isolated from his family and good friends was hard for him. Individually I'm not by any means judging the program. It might've been a great thing, but he clearly figured out early on. I want to come back.

Speaker 2: 3:51

I want to be near my family and my friends and I just want to get the job and work hard and have fun and do whatever. So I've watched Mike over the years in various supported employment opportunities. He worked at Microsoft for many years in the cafeteria. He worked for a bunch of other small startups, generally doing cleanup and sometimes landscaping and just tremendous. I mean clearly happiest when at work more than anything else.

Speaker 2: 4:16

But the challenge was all of these programs and I did not have access to all the details and the agreements and the duration and what the requirements of these supported employment ops were. But they were always intermittent, never more than like a year, and then Mike was unemployed or in transition and struggling to move to the next opportunity and it was very has been very hard on him because he's very dedicated, could never understand why suddenly his job that was a great thing was there one day and then gone the next, and that's always troubled me. So I've kind of monitored that and been a big advocate in his life, along with his family, and provided coaching and whatnot. But he is a classic example of someone that can truly benefit from this. But I guess the learnings for me is how do we make these opportunities more long term, right when they literally work up the ladder like any other functioning person, instead of them being little interludes that have an end date, because I think change is very disruptive.

Speaker 1: 5:15

Oh, incredibly difficult for many people Right.

Speaker 2: 5:19

Especially my friend Mike. Oh, incredibly difficult for many people Right, especially my friend Mike, and it's very troubling every time. He's told well, this project's going to end soon and I know there are advocates and agencies that work with his family to help bridge him to the next one. But you know he's currently now working at a Fred Meyer and loving it, and he's fully in charge of all of the shopping cart retrieval out which we all benefit from. Yeah, but I go back to his whole capability. I mean, he will do anything you ask him to and he will work very hard to the best of his ability. But I also think, given his innate nature, with that cocktail personality, that he should be in customer service.

Speaker 1: 5:55

Right, right, and his skill set is in that area. You know that's where he shines, and so let's tailor the employment to those things that are his best skill. I think a lot of kids just go to college to go to college without knowing what they want.

Speaker 2: 6:10

It's very expensive, they rack up a bunch of debt, they don't necessarily learn any job skills and they spend many years after graduation trying to land. That happens all around us today, all the time. I'm a big and this is a guy that's never worked in trades, although my son is a commercial plumber and I've watched him develop and he's doing very well. We need to be better about introducing young people to trades, yes, but we especially need to do it for people with special needs that are higher functioning on the spectrum, because there's, I mean, we see all the help wanted signs out there. I mean everybody needs help now and I would say and I'm probably going to sound old and cranky here a bit, but I think there are a lot of young folks today they're quote-unquote lazy that don't want. They want to play their xbox, sit on the couch and and do that, and whereas I look at my friend mike, who happens to be developmentally disabled with liam's disease, but he'd give his you know, right arm to have a shot at some of those jobs, and I think, despite the pressure and the subsidies from the federal and the state and the local governments for a lot of these corporations to make doors open for these folks and hire them. We have more opportunity and I think that starts with the skills and the training. If we could create better skills programs for people with developmental disability and get them, you know, skill sets they need to middly hit the ground running as soon as they get out of high school everybody would benefit across the road because there's a, you know, there's a transitional period and, you know, oftentimes, you know, the programs aren't necessarily where they need to be.

Speaker 2: 7:58

I gave you my frustrations earlier with where they often end and, I think, much more efficient as a society, not only in getting these people to be capable and productive, but allowing them to pay their own way, allowing their families to not have to supervise them and be with them in finance, and then I think it also and I validated this in my research when I was in school it greatly improves their perception. In the past, I mean, we used to hear all the slang terms or joking terms that people would use for folks in this space and that always really hurt me because I knew that you know how mean that was and how. You know how brutal that would be for someone to be on the receiving end of that. But I think a lot of that was just ignorance and perception that just because they have some challenges and complications, are never going to be able to normally function like you or I. But that's not the case.

Speaker 2: 8:53

And may not ever be 100% on all levels. But you know what?

Speaker 1: 8:56

With the right support and the right programs maybe they can do it 65% or 70% of the time, and that's a hell of a lot better than being at zero, of great dedicated workers that with the right supports, like you're saying, with the right kind of conditions to help them be successful. I know many students and young adults who they will not miss a day. They will be on time to work and that is where they shine. And it's like, yes, they might need some accommodations, they might need some supports that are outside of the typical. You know, it just takes some vision Right and I think, yeah, it's a.

Speaker 1: 9:49

It's amazing to just get your perspective from somebody who's out in the industry, out doing, you know, product development and and all kinds of different, really amazing background that you have in business. But you also have that compassion, that long-term friendship and history that stems back all the way to those early days when you're just so compassionate as an elementary school student. I would love to ask you I know we have to wrap it up kind of quickly here, but I wanted to ask you just for a closing question If you could go back to those early days when you were in elementary school, even just as a young adult, getting into your post-secondary youary. Any of those points in time for you, what advice would you give yourself? I know you didn't choose to go into special education, but is there anything you would tell your younger self or somebody who's just getting into the field?

Speaker 2: 10:52

That's an excellent question and obviously hindsight's, 20-20 or whatever. But I would say I made myself available to do more earlier on Um. I tried to maximize that. But I also have my schoolwork and my sports and my friends and my social life and everything Um. You know, I would say, did I, did I leverage any and all opportunities to expand what I could give and learn in this space?

Speaker 2: 11:17

would be the first one. You know perhaps a little me some regret that I may not have gone into this full-time as a career to do it a hundred percent of the time. I mean, I had other callings and other opportunities and leads and you know that basically I'm always thinking that through what might've happened if I, you know, could have I been within the industry a big voice that could make a change systemically to improve these programs and acts, access to them. Not regret, but more. What is there right?

Speaker 1: 11:48

Sure.

Speaker 2: 11:49

Yeah, um, I mentioned I was a little concerned that you know my experience, although valid and real, were you know a long time ago in many cases, other than Mike and some of my other friends I stay in touch with you know been more directly, stayed engaged with the evolution of all these programs. I mean, maybe at some point I'd love to pick your brain about the curriculums and how they've changed and where you see opportunities and all that just for my own interest, right Opportunities and all that just for my own interest Right.

Speaker 2: 12:16

You know, and I followed in the media in some cases, due to some of the legislative changes, a lot of programs that directly finance and benefit this space have been at risk or pulled back and I've always done a head scratch Like how could you possibly even think about doing this for so many reasons? We need this Society, so needs this. So, you know, maybe even been, you know, involved with lobbying or something, even at the political level, to be a voice for these folks behind the scenes.

Speaker 2: 12:47

Um, yeah I think there's opportunities. Even as I left this world you know, with daily interaction, as an advocate to going into the business world after I graduated, you know, I think there were some opportunities where I could have talked to the companies I worked for, knowing where we needed to hire folks and I knew there were gaps with these skills. Could this community? Maybe I had opportunity to be a voice. Well, have you guys thought about this? I mean, certain industries generally have been leveraged more than others, but I also think the technology world may be a have been leveraged more than others, but I also think the technology world may be a late adopter for this. Right Now, my friend I mentioned has worked for various tech organizations in their cafeterias, in support roles and all. But I think that could be expanded upon, especially with corporate responsibility standards A lot of companies have today.

Speaker 2: 13:34

T-Mobile is very big on giving back and I think you know opportunities where we could bring people like my friend, mike and others that could work in you know T-Mobile stores, whether they're doing you know merchandise stocking or receiving you know phones in the back or whatever, especially when they have these great Dan with these cocktail party personalities or whatever they're primed to be in a sales or social setting. So I think that would be my feedback on that.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Okay, Well, JR, I think we need more people like you in our society. You have such amazing hearts, such great perspectives, and I'm just really grateful to you for bringing your compassion, your relationships and your view for inclusion of people who live life with disability into community settings. I love, love hearing from you today. Thank you so much for your time and for taking this opportunity to talk with me and with our listeners, and we're just really grateful Well thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 14:34

Thank you for the opportunity. I'd love for another opportunity one day soon, and this has been a great experience for me as well, and it's such a genuine issue that more people need to understand and there's so much more work to do in society. So thank you.

Speaker 1: 14:48

Right? Yeah, well, we do. I know SDES and Functional Academics. We have some really innovative things coming up that Suzanne Fitzgerald and her team are working on. That really will highlight some of the things that you had hoped for Mike to really tailor the individualized education planning and programming for young adults in school. So it'd be fun to share that with you at some point, because you're really good at all that business and marketing kind of realm.

Speaker 2: 15:16

So sounds great.

Speaker 1: 15:17

Okay, all right, well, take care, and hopefully we'll talk soon.

Speaker 2: 15:21

Great. Have a great day, thank you.

Speaker 1: 15:23

You too. A heartfelt thank you to our generous sponsors. Specially Designed Education Services. Publishers of the Functional Academics Program, please take a moment to learn more about the only true, comprehensive functional academics program that enables students with moderate to severe disabilities to improve their ability to live independently and show meaningful growth both academically and personally, while creating accountability with data-driven, evidence-based results. Visit sdesworkscom to learn more.