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In both of these instances, the end result of the rehabilitation service is to prepare the handicapped individuals for life and the making of a living. The actual business of making that living must come through employment in industry, business, government, self-employment, and for the more severely disabled through enterprises such as Goodwill Industries.

Industry's Attitude Toward Disabled

Business and industry are increasingly employing qualified handicapped persons. Many of the larger industries have established special rehabilitation services within their training and personnel departments. Here, again, there is limitation to the number of persons who may be employed. Industry is limited not only to the number of jobs available which can be performed by handicapped persons, but also to the employment of those handicapped persons who may be able to work the full schedule of hours required by the particular jobs or operations to which they are assigned. The more severely disabled persons, though they may be well qualified for certain operations within industry, may not be employed either because of the lack of jobs for which they are qualified, or because they cannot stand the strain of the full employment period required in the productive process.

Many communities have established special committees for the purpose of better serving handicapped and disabled persons on a community basis. These committees. in order to serve the whole group of handicapped in their community, will require the services of agencies such as Goodwill Industries, especially to accommodate the more severely handicapped and provide interim employment for the less seriously handicapped.

How Goodwill Industries Serve

It is well to state here, specifically, how Goodwill Industries help the handicapped and disabled and how these agencies may be used by other organizations in such services. The services of the Goodwill Industries are available to handicapped and disabled persons, who can travel to the shop unassisted, those who require special transportation, and those confined to their homes. The amount of service per day or per week will be determined by the physical and other abilities of the rehabilitant. As rehabilitation centers, Goodwill Industries provide:

(a) vocational training in skills and) industrial activities involved in the various operations of the agency.

(b) employment training to help disabled persons gain experience in industrial operations.

(c) work experience to help disabled persons develop work habits and become accustomed to regular production schedules.

(d) occupational and work therapy to help disabled persons adjust physical strengths and mental attitudes so they may be advanced into a regular training program.

(e) pre-training service for the less able severely disabled persons to determine whether they may be expected to qualify for regular industrial activities either in commercial industry or special workshops for the handicapped.

(f) guidance, adjustment, social service, recreational services and self-expression opportunities to assist disabled persons to meet their social and other problems and help them realize a fuller development of their personalities.

As employment centers Goodwill Industries provide:

(a) temporary employment which will give work experience, earned income, and morale stabilization to disabled persons pending their placement in commercial industry.

(b) longer periods of employment for disabled persons for whom commercial or self-employment is not immediately available but who may be placed in industry from time to time as jobs for which they are qualified are available.

(c) rather regular employment for the more seriously disabled who do not appear to be placeable in commerce, industry, or self-employment, but who can be employed in the workshops or in their homes at tasks for which they are qualified, and for such periods of time as their physical and other abilities will permit.

Open Door Employment Policy

The Goodwill Industries may provide that short term employment for severely disabled persons may be made in commercial industry without impairing the employment status of those persons at Goodwill. Thus when they have completed the specific commercial job in which they were placed, they may return to Goodwill without interruption in employment. This arrangement encourages employees to go into competitive employment at every opportunity even for temporary periods.

A New Challenge...

THROUGH careful classification of all jobs in Goodwill Industries, the unskilled, the semi-skilled, the skilled, the clerical, the sales, and the professional persons may have constructive employment at tasks for which they are suited or for which they can be trained or retrained. The Goodwill Industries in local communities may develop curative workshops or special rehabilitation center activities in those cities where, it appears, the agencies should develop such services.

Stimulate Public Interest