RESPECT of Florida is the central non-profit agency for the State of Florida that helps employ about 1,200 Floridians with disabilities through the production of commodities and contractual services that are sold to government entities. If you would like to learn more about us or browse our catalog, visit us at:
respectofflorida.org.
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A Message from Executive Director Ryland Musick
March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, but did you know that March is also Workplace Eye Wellness Month?
Most of us take our eyes and vision for granted. The proliferation of computers, mobile devices, and other screens that produce artificial light can cause other issues such as headaches, eye fatigue, and dry eyes. However, failing to take appropriate safety precautions result in thousands of daily eye injuries that are avoidable. Certain professions such as healthcare and custodial have workers more prone to eye infections because of their work environments - precautions with safety eyeware and hand hygiene are important. Eye protection and vision health is a topic that affects us all.
We are fortunate to have two organizations devoted to assisting individuals with visual impairment as partners in the RESPECT Program. Lighthouse Works! in Orlando and the Lighthouse for the Visually Impaired and Blind (LVIB), in Port Richey supply commodities and services to Florida government customers. They also provide extensive support and training. Lighthouse Works! offers basic Customer Service training as well as Contact Center Excellence, a program geared at preparing candidates for the call center industry. Their philosophy is Empowerment through Employment. LVIB provides extensive training to promote employment and independence.
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Pine Castle CEO Accepts Award for Excellence
The prestigious Terry Mothershed award for excellence is given annually to acknowledge a professional whose contributions have resulted in significant improvement in the quality of life for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health needs. The award highlights the professional's dedication, advocacy, compassion, competence, person-centered approaches and collaboration results in improved quality of life, health and wellness, and/or opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Pine Castle CEO Jon May was selected to be the 2017 Northeast Florida recipient.
May has a distinguished 28 year career as the CEO of Pine Castle, Inc. Under May's leadership, he has grown the agency budget from $1.5 million in 1988 to over $6 million in 2016. Pine Castle's outreach has grown from 250 clients in 1988 to over 350 clients in 2016. He has added 60 agency jobs for staff working to improve the lives of persons with disabilities.
In addition to his work at Pine Castle, May has serves on the Board of Directors for Florida Association of Rehabilitation Facilities (FARF), an organization serving the interests of Florida providers of services with intellectual and developmental disabilities which includes legislative and state government advocacy for the needs of persons served in our field. He has been active as a community leader with the Jacksonville Chamber, Southside Business Club and United Way Directors.
Pine Castle is a RESPECT of Florida partner organization. Orders of mops and drug testing kits help provide needed and appreciated employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities in the Jacksonville area.
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Facebook is one more way RESPECT wants to connect with you. Click above to like our page.
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Meetings, Training, and Events
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Commodity of the Month
RESPECT of Florida offers a variety of customized commodities that are sure to make your next event a huge success.
T-shirts, totes, hats, ear buds, cups, stylus pens, and more!
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Cabinet Presents Resolution for DD Awareness Month
On March 14, RESPECT staff attended a cabinet meeting at the Capitol. At the meeting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi presented a resolution declaring March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness month.
Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) Director Barbara Palmer introduced various advocates in the disability community in attendance. Adam Longfellow gave an emotional speech about what his job means to him. He works at a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Tallahassee. Before he had this job, he was not employed and had nothing meaningful to fill his day. He did not think this was fair. Adam was so thankful to Governor Rick Scott for providing additional funding for APD to help remove people from the waiting list. Now he is employed, feels like part of a team, pays taxes, and is more independent. APD and his job coach help him be successful and he feels this opportunity changed his life for the better.
RESPECT Executive Director Ryland Musick spoke about RESPECT's mission of employing people with disabilities by providing goods and services to all levels of Florida government. He stated that employing people with disabilities is "good public policy and good for the economy." He also introduced Jon Shell, brother of Jeff Shell. RESPECT awarded Jeff a Micro-Enterprise Grant in 2015 to launch Jeff's Corner, a community garden.
Jon Shell provided an update on Jeff's Corner since its inception. Before Jeff was awarded the Micro-Enterprise Grant, he did not have a job. The garden provided a way for him to learn skills and earn money. They planted the first seeds in fall 2015, and once the crop came in Jeff delivered the vegetables on a trike with a cooler to local businesses. Jeff's Corner became wildly popular in Pensacola with the locals. Jeff started taking on interns at the garden to teach other individuals with disabilities the valuable skills he had learned. Most recently, Jeff has joined Arc Gateway and the small corner garden has now grown into a 2,200 square foot hydroponic grow space on the Arc Gateway campus. Jeff is also an instructor for the PALS program. The next phase of the project includes a recreational area to enhance an area under an I-10 overpass.
The cabinet meeting proved to be a successful forum to start raising awareness on issues that affect people with developmental disabilities.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi and Governor Rick Scott present the resolution.
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Jon Shell talks about Jeff's Corner.
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Adam Longfellow addresses the cabinet.
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DD Awareness Day
RESPECT staff joined fellow disability advocates and self-advocates at the Capitol on March 21 for Developmental Disabilities Awareness Day. RESPECT enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of this event and encourage Floridians with disabilities to tell their stories to their legislators.
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BAC Seeks Solutions for Transportation
By Amar Patel, President/CEO of Brevard Achievement Center
 Google the term "creating inclusive societies" and you'll quickly understand that this is a universal challenge. The University of California-Berkeley has even created an entire center focused on this issue. From a more drilled down perspective, how can we create a truly inclusive society for individuals with disabilities residing in Brevard County?
The U.S. Census Bureau's 2015 American Community Survey indicates that approximately 37,421 individuals with disabilities (ages 18-64) live in Brevard. Of that number, roughly 25,000 are not in the labor force. While we don't know why these individuals are not actively seeking employment, one reason could be that they have no access to transportation.
Taxis or Uber are an option for some, but they're not affordable for all. The less expensive alternative is Space Coast Area Transit (SCAT), but weekend, holiday and evening schedules are limited. Also, although all fixed schedule buses are wheelchair accessible, some individuals more than likely can't navigate the transit system.
SCAT does offer Paratransit travel which is usually a curb-to-curb service accessed through a trip-by-trip reservation available for those unable to use the general system. However, this service also is limited. SCAT Transit Director, Jim Liesenfelt says that in order to provide 24/7/365 Paratransit service for all Brevard County citizens, it would roughly cost an additional $2.2 million. In addition, local sources such as taxes or grants would have to pay that funding since state and federal monies allocated to SCAT-like services probably are not going to be increased. Furthermore, if SCAT did receive additional funding for enhanced Paratransit service, there's no guarantee that the service would be adequate for the size of our county.
The lack of accessible and affordable transportation for individuals with disabilities leads to unemployment, limits opportunities to pursue higher education, experience a sense of community and overall social integration. Thus, depression and a feeling of isolation and abandonment become a way of life.
For Brevard County to be a truly accepting community transportation issues have to be resolved. If you have creative ideas for possible solutions, email [email protected] and let's start a conversation.
Amar Patel is President and CEO of Brevard Achievement Center, a Rockledge-based nonprofit with satellite offices in Melbourne and Titusville that has assisted people with disabilities achieve personal success since 1968.
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Louise Graham Regeneration Center Receives DEO Grant
RESPECT of Florida partner Louise Graham Regeneration Center received a grant from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to purchase and install new equipment. Louise Graham provides shredding services, and needed a larger paper shredder and baler to grow the business this year and provide even more job opportunities for people with disabilities.
The new equipment will be installed and operational during the first week of April. Louise Graham currently shreds about 100,000 pounds of paper each month and hopes to double the volume in the next few years. All the shredded paper is converted to recycled paper products saving millions of trees and gallons of water. The shredding operations creates 20+ jobs for people with disabilities. It is good for the environment and good for the economy.
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Mentoring: A Pathway to Professional Development
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HR & Compliance Manager, Dayna Lenk |
Most successful adults can identify a person who had a significant and positive impact on them. Whether it was a teacher, a coach, a boss, a neighbor or a parent, chances are that someone, somewhere along the way acted as a mentor.
A mentor is an individual, usually older, always more experienced, who helps guide another individual's development. The mentor's role is to guide, advise, and to support someone. A mentor can help a person (mentee) improve his or her abilities and skills through observation, assessment, modeling, and by providing feedback. This guidance is done without the expectation of personal or monetary gain on the mentor's part. The benefits do not stop with the mentee, people who mentor often are more productive, better socialized, and less stressed. They also tend to develop a loyal network of supporters, gather valuable perspectives from younger employees and gain insight into other parts of the business.
Today, more and more businesses are embracing mentoring as a professional development tool. Through mentoring, organizations are seeing improvements in efficiency, productivity, and the passing of institutional knowledge and leadership skills from one generation to the next.
Starting a mentoring program is a business decision that has a positive impact. Mentoring can improve employee satisfaction and retention, enrich new employee initiation, make your company more appealing to recruits, and train your up and coming leaders. And the best part is, it is free. Unlike similar learning incentives like training programs or sending staff to expensive seminars, mentoring utilizes in-house resources.
Mentoring allows you to capitalize on your greatest resource, your employees and their institutional knowledge. Strategically developing your workforce contributes to the company's growth, innovation, and bottom line. It shows management's support, interest, and concern for an employee's potential with the company. It demonstrates to employees that the organization is willing to invest time and resources to help them succeed in their careers. In return, employees are more likely to be more productive and loyal to the company.
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Respectfully Yours
Editorial Team
Lindsey Boyington - Editorial Director
Ryland Musick - Columnist
Dayna Lenk - Human Resources Feature Writer
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