Chinook Enterprises

Two Decades of Helping the
Disabled Find Meaningful Jobs

by Michael Barrett

Chinook Enterprises recently held a gala 20th-anniversary banquet, not only to acknowledge its ongoing commitment to helping disabled people of all kinds find jobs in Skagit Valley, but also to celebrate the agency’s longevity. As executive director Rob Martin observes: “Over our many years in business, we’ve listened to the community and the community has supported us.”

Since humble beginnings in a one-room office and an old Ford Pinto used to ferry workers to and from landscaping jobs, through the thick and thin of recessions and boom times, and always efforting to combat the “myths” about disabled people in the workplace, the staff at Chinook has succeeded where no other similar agency has in placing reliable employees in meaningful positions.

“What I see changed has been that we’re putting more people with more significant disabilities into jobs,” assistant director Jim Halpin notes, thinking back over his last 20 years with Chinook. “Before, it was placement of our clients in more sheltered, protected work situations. Now, there’s more emphasis on relationships.”

Another major change has been the diversity of clients, from severely challenged individuals to people who’ve been highly productive but somewhere along the line suffered a physical or mental breakdown and consequently asked Chinook for help. Many of the latter people would appear perfectly normal to any employer.

Debbie Maxwell, who has a 20-year career in all aspects of retail sales behind her but eventually migrated to the human-resources field, says that as a Chinook employee and counselor, she’s also seen some big changes in the agency.

“We’re placing people from different programs — the county, school districts, WorkFirst — and the variety of jobs is so broad. We’re also doing more work with at-risk youth and people with family dysfunctions, or people with low self-esteem and other barriers,” she says.

Founder-director Martin, the guiding force behind Chinook Enterprises, is quick to point out its many awards and rewards over the years. In the first year of operations (it was actually started in March 1980, despite last spring’s belated 20th-anniversary celebration), Chinook served 17 individuals and placed six of them in positions. This was the result of contracts between the agency’s “grounds maintenance” crew and Skagit Valley College. At its peak in 1994, Chinook served 264 people with disabilities and placed 74 of them in meaningful jobs. By then, Boeing was contracting for parts manufacturing and plenty of work seemed to be available.

First always has been Martin’s vision of Chinook as a viable business. “Cost accountability is important. We run this like a for-profit. We try to mirror Chinook like other businesses,” he states. “What we want to show is how competent people with disabilities really are.”

 

Doing business with Boeing

Construction of Chinook’s 12,000-square-foot headquarters and shop facility on LaVenture Road was a key to early success, since many clients with a wide variety of disabilities could work together in the small plant.

“We still subcontract with Boeing (for nearly $1 million a year),” Halpin states, noting Chinook now is totally ISO 9100 compliant, “but we’re always looking for jobs. The shop provides a space for people with significant disabilities to have a job and revenue. We now have about five nondisabled people helping about 18 disabled, with another nine nondisabled workers working side by side (in the shop).”

The predominate role of the staff, however, is to find employers willing to hire Chinook clients and match them with the right job situation.

“We’re a personalized employment agency,” Halpin notes. “We’re capable of placing people in simple to skilled jobs. We’re able to do more than a regular employment agency because we go in and help train.”

Once a company shows interest in hiring a disabled employee, the employment consultant analyzes what the available job entails, making sure the candidate can do the work; you wouldn’t place a person with a back problem in a warehouse requiring heavy lifting, for instance. Once the match is made, the Chinook employment consultants learn the job along with the client and helps prepare them wherever necessary. The consultant is later available to intervene with assistance or guidance, if required.

“We provide quality service and do what we say we will do,” Maxwell states.

Busy employers have backed off from hiring the disabled for a variety of reasons, substantiated or not.

“A lot of employers see the disabled as people who need wheelchairs or are unsafe. Only about 5 percent of disabled people require special accommodations and most of our clients have proven exceptionally safe, even around machinery; they pay more attention,” says Maxwell. “Most accommodations an employer will have to make (when hiring a Chinook worker) will cost less than $50.”

“Another misconception is that disabled people are slow and less receptive, that they don’t have a conception of what the job is,” Halpin continues. He relates how one mentally disabled man infuriated his boss because he didn’t understand a verbal directive. When the boss in frustration called for help, the adviser suggested writing it down. That’s all it took, and the worker performed the task correctly and efficiently.

“Another myth employers fear is that once they’ve hired a disabled person, they’re stuck with him. That’s not true,” Halpin adds. “You can’t discriminate; they have to be treated like anyone else. Humans are humans.” He recalls that even he has had to help fire clients who didn’t work out.

 

Disabled can do the job

Over the years, employers who’ve “taken the chance” on hiring mentally or physically challenged individuals have been pleasantly surprised about how well they perform, how reliable they can be, how well they take direction and, perhaps as important, how well they fit in. There are many examples of support for disabled hirelings from other employees and about friendships that have developed.

More recently, the county joined in by hiring a couple of Chinook clients, with excellent results. Others found work on car lots, in restaurants, doing maintenance, at plant nurseries and performing assembly work.

Doug Whipple, another Chinook counselor, says: “There’s a big diversity of participation. One fellow was recently placed in a supervisory position at a state agency in Olympia. We had another guy, with skills developed in the military, who we placed with an aerospace manufacturer, and when that company was sold, the new owners kept him on. We’ve had employees stay with companies a long time.”

One worker, at Skagit Gardens, has been there for more than 18 years, most of that time working around machinery.

“Many of our clients have worked 20-25 years in a particular field, but a disability now prevents them from performing as before,” says Whipple, who admits to having, himself, a mild, “hidden” physical disability. “But these people have bills and families to deal with, and they want to be self-supporting.”

For more information about Chinook Enterprises and how to connect with staff and clients, call 428-0140 or visit the Web site at www.chinookenterprises.org.