Nonprofit saving & adding jobs for the blind, visually impaired in Little Rock
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - An underemployed community in Arkansas is gaining new job opportunities thanks to a company taking over a shuttering factory for the blind and vision impaired.
What is the nonprofit making? On Murray Street, it is currently just paper office supplies like notebooks. That is what was left when VisionCorps took over in October 2023. Months prior, the spot was making clothing for the military, but departments started closing down and people lost their jobs. Now, VisionCorps is bringing new contracts to the space early in 2024.
Like clockwork every day James Walker and his coworkers keep the government well supplied, but this year their world seemed to spiral out of their control.
"They shut us down, the whole department, the whole building," Walker explained.
Three lines of production dwindled to one. Jobs were lost, and just before Walker had to turn the page on his 40-year career, VisionCorps stepped in.
"We're thrilled to be bringing people back to work to employ the blind and vision impaired in the community," George Tobler, VisionCorps Vice President of Quality Assurance and Ability One Contracting, said when KARK 4 News went to the Little Rock facility.
Tobler and Walker are both legally blind. So is the CEO of VisionCorps.
"Our community is about 70% underemployed, so there are a lot of people in the U.S. looking for work," Tobler shared.
VisionCorps is a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit empowering the blind and visually impaired for more than 95 years.
"In any other job like they consider us a liability and which we're not you know. We can be trained to do other jobs if given the opportunity and the chance," Walker stressed.
He and his current coworkers and hopefully former coworkers too are getting a chance to try new things in 2024 thanks to government contracts through AbilityOne. The government program since 1938 has ensured federal agencies look to those with disabilities first to deliver high-quality, mission-essential products and services.
AbilityOne ranges from aircraft, vehicular and electrical equipment and supplies to clothing, textiles and individual equipment. Food processing, packaging and distribution to medical & dental supplies.
The notebooks in Little Rock are SKILCRAFT products which include more than 3,000 items including janitorial equipment, office supplies, medical supplies, tools, uniforms and more.
SKILCRAFT is a registered trademark of National Industries for the Blind.
"It's not about can or can't. It's about how things are done by the blind and vision-impaired community," Tobler said. "We can do anything,"
In early January, the VisionCorps Little Rock facility will add staff to recycle and reprogram audiobook thumb drives for the National Library System. By May, rice packaging for the military should also come online creating around 30 jobs in total at the whole site.
"We haven't done those before, and we're looking forward to it," Walker said. "We want to work, and we enjoy working, to be a productive member of society."
An employee named Wesley shared that his mother and late grandmother worked at the original Little Rock Lighthouse for the Blind building dedicated by Helen Keller in 1945. He said it has been a big blessing for that long, so they are all glad that VisionCorps kept that going by acquiring the site.
"We're a real tight community, and we want to be working, and we love it," Walker concluded.
from KARK https://ift.tt/lieb1c9
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