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Helping individuals build skills to find and keep great jobs
Adults with disabilities and other social and economic disadvantages looking for meaningful employment receive job training, placement and other employment services through Goodwill/Easter Seals. Programs include the following:
Employment brightens determined participant's day
John, pictured above and at right, looks forward to getting up for work every day because he loves his job. His dedication to improving his job skills and his interpersonal skills has helped him hold his job at Medtronic for almost 19 years, thanks to a strong support system he finds in his friends and in Goodwill/Easter Seals Minnesota.
In 1988, John was in an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury, permanently damaging his mobility and cognitive abilities. Before his accident, John lived an active lifestyle and was enrolled at Minneapolis Technical Institute in hopes of becoming a sheet metal worker.
After a long and difficult recovery from his injuries, John was referred to Goodwill/Easter Seals by Minnesota Rehabilitation Services. Goodwill/Easter Seals helped him find a job working in the mail room at Medtronic in Fridley, Minn. in 1990.
Medtronic, Inc. is a medical technology company, specializing in alleviating pain, restoring health and extending life for millions of people worldwide.
John has been very successful in his long career at Medtronic. Last year, he was given the opportunity to relocate to Medtronic’s new state-of-the-art facility in Mounds View, Minn.
Dealing with difficult situations and staying on task are John’s biggest challenges at work, according to Mike Chevrette, John’s support consultant from Goodwill/Easter Seals. Chevrette meets with him twice a month to help him improve on these issues.
John’s boss, Gayle Morstad, has seen significant improvements in both areas thanks to the continued assistance provided by Goodwill/Easter Seals. “They support how well he does here,” Morstad says. “Goodwill/Easter Seals adds value to the employer and the employee themselves.”
As for John, “[Goodwill/Easters Seals] gives me the support I need to do my job,” he says.
John says he loves his job because he loves working with coworkers who have become his friends, and he enjoys the tasks he performs every day, which include sorting and posting mail. John appreciates what Goodwill/Easter Seals has helped him to achieve and is grateful for its help in overcoming the barriers he encounters so he can continue to work at a place where he feels welcome and at home. “My job [at Medtronic] has brightened up my life since my accident,” he says. |
