It’s been more than 50 years since downstate parents of kids with disabilities established a center to generate enrichment opportunities where there simply were none. Today, Kent-Sussex Industries, Inc. (KSI) is a hub for employment connections in Kent and Sussex counties, serving nearly 300 participants each year.
Originally dubbed the Golden Opportunity Center, the nonprofit, vocational rehabilitation center changed its name early on to reflect its mission as a business rather than a charity, a strategy that further defined the organization and gave moxie to its mission. Today KSI offers training and support to Kent and Sussex county participants through its prevocational and employment programs. It turns out a workforce with an 89 percent attendance rate while meeting the labor pool needs of area industry.
“We have the most dependable people,” said KSI CEO Craig Crouch. “They’re really capable ““ our learning curve might be longer but once we’ve got it, we’ve got it.”
They’ve also got a great capacity to learn skills and contribute to meaningful work, according to Crouch. Skills identified by KSI staff early on are customized through specific prevocational training to prepare them for employment. Training also includes production, assembly and mail projects at their 77,000-square-foot Skill Development Center in Milford.
It’s a long way from the cultural mindset that found many developmentally disabled individuals relegated to institutional care like the Stockley Center. Until the Supreme Court ruled against institutionalization for non-dangerous persons with developmental disabilities in 1975,the center housed 750 residents. Today, there are just 56, according to officials from the Department of Health and Social Services.
That ruling gave an already active KSI a foothold in the larger community as it put down roots for a multi-layered nerve center for opportunity ““ for the participants looking to experience meaningful work and the Delaware business community utilizing the workforce KSI churns out.
Facility-based training guides participants through small skills like direction following, sequencing and enumeration and social interaction. Community-based work service programs train crews to work in outside settings like McDonald’s and Procter and Gamble. A longtime crew of 140 works successfully in salvage and reclaiming at Kraft Foods.
Follow-along programs find participants integrated with the traditional workforce as full wage earners, some earning benefits.
Across the spectrum of offerings, KSI offers training, transportation and oversight, with buses logging more than one million miles annually to ensure that participants get to work on time every day. “We help them reach their highest level of potential,” said Crouch. “Some people have been with us for 20 years.
According to Crouch, nearly 73 percent of the people they serve are still involved with the natural family ““ no group homes or assisted living. And days spent in skills-based training or at independent sites means meaningful work for participants, and a respite for caretakers.
For Crouch, connecting to individuals with disabilities was forged early on when he met a young man his own age who had lost the use of his legs in a car accident.
“I saw this guy who wanted all the same things out of life that I did and who had a ton more obstacles in his life than I did,” said Crouch.
Today there is a concentrated push toward a supportive employment model ““ participants working on-site in local industry sizable crews at Proctor and Gamble and Kraft Foods. But their work there is no charity case, according to Crouch. Bottom lines are driven by efficiency, and Delaware industries do not cater to KSI placements because of their disabilities, but because of their dependability and work ethic, said Crouch.
While some industries seek out KSI, Crouch said that his team also scours ads for positions that may prove to be a great fit ““ spots like the Rehoboth Country Club maintenance crew, or work at area garden centers.
“This work allows people to be part of something that’s bigger than themselves,” said Crouch. “It challenges and creates opportunities to learn, to fail, to discover ““ that’s no different from the rest of us.”
While off-site and community-based employment opportunities encompass much of what they do, KSI has in-house programs that have been a mainstay of their operation.
The KSI Cartridge Service offers a full line of imaging supplies, including compatible toner cartridges remanufactured by participants at KSI’s Skill Development Center, according to Crouch. With no technology to replace it, the program is a $600,000 per year business for KSI. The success of this on-site service may serve as a blue print for future projects as KSI vets future projects that would employ their own participants.
“We’re looking for other affirmative businesses,” said Crouch. “We’re examining franchises that require active activity in the back room. Maybe we’ll bring the community into KSI and engage more volunteers.
“Our folks are capable of great things with appropriate support,” said Crouch.
