October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, a time to recognize the critical role that individuals with disabilities play in the workforce and to continue advocating inclusion for all. Here at VALLEYLIFE, we are privileged to partner with several wonderful employers throughout the Valley to help secure roles for hundreds of Members every year. One of those partnerships is with Quality Connections, a Flagstaff-based nonprofit with the goal of providing employment opportunities to individuals with disabilities.
Over the past 10 years, Quality Connections has worked alongside VALLEYLIFE’s Vocational Services to secure jobs delivering supplies to government buildings around the Phoenix area. Each day, Quality Connections sends an invoice to VALLEYLIFE Vocational staff providing a list of supplies that need to be picked up from a local warehouse and to which government location they need to be delivered. An average of six VALLEYLIFE Members participate in paid work training each year in the Quality Connections delivery program, where they participate in job readiness classes that reinforce the value and meaning of integrated community employment and focus on increasing independence and building real-world job skills. Members work an average of 3.5 hours a day, Monday through Friday, and earn minimum wage.
According to Bill Farrell, Senior Program Manager of VALLEYLIFE’s Vocational Services program, the partnership allows Members to continue to grow and improve important career skills like organization and attention to detail.
“We are grateful for the many years that we have partnered with Quality Connections,” he said. “Our partnership gives our Members a chance to learn about supply chain distribution and the importance of making sure we have satisfied customers in our deliveries. It gives our Members experience in checking invoices to packages and making sure that we are delivering the product in the most professional way. Members have a great feeling of happiness when they know that they have been involved with delivering much-needed supplies to the community.”
That feeling of happiness is one that rings true for Vocational Members like Antonio P., who has been with VALLEYLIFE for three months.
“I enjoy it greatly,” he said about his time working for Quality Connections. “I’ve always been good with numbers and I know Phoenix like the back of my hand.”
Despite only being with VALLEYLIFE for a short time, Antonio says that his experience has been primarily positive thanks to Vocational staff like Bill and Job Coach Tasha Ruch.
“My coach Tasha is excellent and very good at her job and Bill is a very good man,” he said.
VALLEYLIFE has always believed that one of the best ways to positively impact our Members' lives is through finding a job, and it’s because of partnerships like Quality Connections that VALLEYLIFE is able to bring that belief to fruition. This National Disability Employment Awareness Month, we celebrate the achievements of our Members and are reminded just how important fostering a culture of inclusion and creating opportunities for individuals with disabilities really is.
For more information about how VALLEYLIFE serves Members’ employment needs, check out our Vocational Services Page.