Work to create employment options

Since 1966, Options of Linn County has provided day habilitation and prevocational services (sheltered workshop) to people with intellectual and physical disabilities. Options is unique in that it is the only county-funded provider of such services for people with disabilities in Iowa.

Through fierce and passionate advocacy in the 1960s and 1970s, people with disabilities began to come out from the shadows of institutionalization and were integrated back into the light of the community.

Options of Linn County was created to serve these exceptional individuals with day habilitation and job training opportunities. This same movement has created new challenges and opportunities for further integration into the community through competitive employment instead of sheltered workshops.

The Options Future Planning Task Force was created by the Linn County Board of Supervisors to examine the changes in federal regulations and funding restrictions that could require the closure of the Options sheltered workshop, which affects nearly 100 Options consumers.

After a year of study and review, the task force identified three key issues that directly impact its future:

1) federal regulations that view sheltered workshops as a restrictive environment that segregates the disabled from the community;

2) requirements that employers pay minimum wage to people with disabilities in a sheltered workshop instead of the current subminimum wage, which is based on their ability and productivity; and

3) changes in the state's reimbursement rate for Options to far below the cost of providing these services. The task force estimated the funding gap to be several hundred thousand dollars annually.

Furthermore, the Linn County Board of Supervisors cannot, by law, allocate additional dollars into the Mental Health/Disability Services levy to subsidize this gap.

The Options Future Planning Task Force - consisting of family members of Options consumers, disability advocates, disability service providers, Options and Linn County staff - voted unanimously to recommend to the Linn County Board of Supervisors that the sheltered workshop close by June 30, 2016. This date represents the end of Linn County's fiscal 2016 budget.

The task force also recommended restructuring the day habilitation services provided by Options to comply with new federal regulations requiring more community integrated programming.

The task force recognizes not all Options consumers in the sheltered workshop will be able to find, or work in, competitive employment. For those who cannot, they will be able to work at Options until the closure of the sheltered workshop and can receive day habilitation services following the closure.

Linn County case managers will work with Options' consumers and family members to assist them during this transitional period.

The closing of the Options sheltered workshop is not the outcome many had hoped for. However, it is the only feasible alternative available at this time.

I am working closely with area employers to educate them on the benefits of hiring someone with a disability. It can improve a company's culture, bottom line and the social good.

It will take a collaborative effort among family members of Options consumers, disability advocates, Linn County, the private sector and the greater community to make sure the disabled have every opportunity for inclusion and employment.

This truly will take a village.

' Linn County Supervisor Ben Rogers served on the Options Future Planning Task Force. Comments: ben.rogers@linncounty.org