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Challenge Workforce Solutions Fall 2019 Newsletter

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Published by evanw, 2019-11-20 14:39:12

Challenge Workforce Solutions Fall 2019 Newsletter

Challenge Workforce Solutions Fall 2019 Newsletter

FALL 2019 NEWSLETTER

TEAMWORK

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HELLO WORLD — P. 4 IN THE COMMUNITY — P. 5 A NEW VOICE FOR YOUTH — P. 6

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As we wrap up our 2019 year here at Challenge, we are honored to reflect on
our progress and the promise of more opportunity to come for the people we Executive Director Joe Sammons
serve—all of it thanks to you, our supporters in the community! with participant Sabrina at TJ Maxx

First, our progress: our agency is continuing our slow and steady financial This quarter, I would like to thank
recovery, and we are on track to have our first healthy end-of-year surplus since the wonderful and supportive staff
2012! Our teams have focused on the core mission, and on carefully keeping we have here at Challenge––from
our revenues in line with expenses, so that we can ensure that Challenge has our official Voice of Challenge,
the means to survive and thrive for many years to come. Jacob, to our amazing admin
Stephanie.
The good news is that our mission and margin go hand-in-hand at Challenge—
by investing in our staff and clients, we are able to help people to work with This newsletter would not be
dignity and value while at the same time helping our employment partners possible without the talent and
address a critical workforce shortage in the area. Our new contract with dedication of our marketing guy,
Cayuga Medical Center, highlighted in this report, is a great illustration of Evan.
this “win-win” dynamic.
All the staff at Challenge make the
We also have the promise of more opportunity in the months and years work you support with your gifts
ahead. In this newsletter, you will meet Aleah, who is leading our efforts to possible. It’s not just what they
have a vibrant year-round program for youth employment, which will allow do––it’s who they are!
us to significantly expand our services and increase access to employment at
a critical time in the lives of the people we serve. This is just one of the ways They are caring, patient, and
that Challenge is growing to keep our mission alive to meet the needs of our mission-driven individuals that
community! have made my job––sharing our
story––a task of joy!
As we make our plans for 2020, we can look at the horizon and see a
combination of solid progress financially and exciting promise for our mission Thank you, Challenge staff!
and programs. At the same time, we know that this is the last year we will
receive NYS funds for our work center, the longest-operating program in
our agency, and the first year of the transition to “managed care” for other
programs.

So while the road ahead is going to be bumpy, we are ready—and we are
deeply grateful that we don’t have to travel that road alone. At Challenge, we
have been fortunate to have the support of so many people in our community,
whose generous contributions make it possible to keep our mission alive, one
person at a time. Thank you so much for being part of our family! ▲

MAKE A GIFT... ANYTIME!

Just go to aboutchallenge.org to make an instant and secure online
donation, or email [email protected] to pay another way!

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Aleah Rivera, our new Youth Outreach In this frenetic economy, when so many businesses are jockeying to attract
Coordinator and retain entry-level employees, we at Challenge recognize that a key solution
is to bring new, often-overlooked talent into the labor pool. Nationwide, high-
Who? school-aged youth with disabilities represent a potential workforce over one
► Local youth ages 16–24, in or million strong—but without the right supports, an overwhelming majority of
out of school them will not seek employment once they are out of school.
► With a disability or mental
health diagnosis (per ACCES-VR But what are the right supports? A mounting body of evidence demonstrates
eligibility) the vital importance of programs that combine classroom-based training with
authentic experiences—real work for real pay. A recent study1 showed that
What? young adults with severe disabilities who did paid work while still in school
► Community-based work were more than twice as likely to be employed two years after graduating
placements at competitive pay as their peers who had only participated in unpaid work-study or shadowing.
► Individualized onsite job
coaching and college/training With this in mind, Challenge resolved to make our youth program a top
guidance plus soft-skills classes priority in 2019. With a brand-new name and logo, Youth VOICE (Vocational
Opportunities in Career Exploration) now offers paid community work
Why? experiences with onsite coaching and offsite skill-building to individuals ages
► Youth gain incomparable 16 to 24 throughout the whole calendar year.
real-world experience and
independence We’ve also hired on a dedicated Youth Outreach Coordinator with an
► Employers gain a motivated, abundance of fresh new ideas and energy grounded in meaningful
trained, supported worker, with up experiences with evidence-based youth programming, poverty alleviation,
to 320 hours' wages paid by us and community wellness: Aleah Rivera!

Aleah is an Northwestern Indiana native and a recent graduate of the
Indiana University. During her senior year, she pursued an internship with
Girls Inc. where she was responsible for implementing activities with the aim
of equipping girls to navigate socioeconomic obstacles and grow into healthy
self-reliance. She also volunteered at Shalom Community Center, where she
he assisted guests in obtaining toiletries and getting set up with social workers
and other public resources.

Soon after graduating, Aleah took a trip to Ithaca and, after hiking a few
hills and gorges, fell in love with the area: “Coming from Indiana, where
natural features are at most three feet tall, I was amazed!” Likewise, when she
interviewed at Challenge, she knew she had found the right place: “I’ve only
been here a short time, but it’s a perfect fit. I love the supportive atmosphere,
and I’m excited to get out in the community to promote Youth VOICE."

Aleah says that she is particularly looking forward to forging stronger
partnerships with outlying school districts. “Now that we’re able to run
programs year-round, we have the capacity to serve a much broader reach
of students. We already have great relationships with TST BOCES and Ithaca
High School, but there are lots of youth in more rural areas with a lack of
access to transportation, which can be as big of a barrier as a diagnosed
disability. Connecting with those youth, before they leave school and get out
of structured routines, is going to be really important.” ▲

1 Carter, Erik W., Diane Austin, and Audrey A. Trainor. “Predictors of Postschool Employment Outcomes for Young Adults With
Severe Disabilities.” Journal of Disability Policy Studies 23, no. 1 (June 2012): 50–63. doi:10.1177/1044207311414680.

A New Path to Success: Challenge Teams

Challenge is very excited to be piloting a new service model to America and started her career path over from step one.
that will advance our core mission of creating pathways
to employment for people with disabilities and barriers by With very little English at her command, Angkana took a
meeting the supplemental staffing needs of our area’s key job serving at a Thai restaurant in Boston, soon being made
employers. This venture, Challenge Teams, recruits and a manager. Already a wife and mother of one, Angkana
deploys customized, responsive crews to augment existing then made three more big moves with her young family:
maintenance operations and offers coaching supports to first to Chicago, where her second son was born; then to
ensure quality, cooperation, and retention. Tokyo, where both of her children learned a third language;
and finally to Ithaca, where her husband entered a doctoral
Our first client is Cayuga Medical Center, where an program in Regional Economics at Cornell and she happened
integrated team of five is working in tandem with the upon a posting for a job in the university’s dishrooms. Again,
hospital’s own Environmental Services staff to provide her leadership skills were readily recognized—and this
housekeeping and floor care. time, her multiple language skills, too—and she was swiftly
promoted to supervisor, coordinator, and now manager.
Joe Sammons, Challenge’s Executive Director, explains,
“It’s really important for us to deliver our mission with Says Dave Cummings, Assistant Director of Contract
employers where people want to work—places that are Staffing, “Angkana has earned the trust and respect of
growing, that have excellent management and culture, all the staff that have had the privilege to work with her.”
that offer good benefits and a wide range of opportunities. For her part, Angkana says, “This is a new role for me, and
CMC fits all of those characteristics.” I’m learning every day. But we’re all learning every day.
Challenge is different this way—we don’t just say ‘no’—we
Noel Daniel, CMC’s Director of Environmental Services, have to find a way to talk to each other and support each
responds, “We were destined to team up and make this other in learning new things.” ▲
happen. Challenge is a phenomenal organization. They
don’t just get people jobs—they offer coaching, ways to
overcome language barriers, and help to older individuals
who want to transition back into the workforce. It’s been a
huge help—without this collaboration, we may not have
been able to fill these positions.”

The crew’s newly promoted manager, Angkana
Nathabheem, has spent the last several years in the
dishrooms operated by Challenge Contract Staffing at

Cornell University, working with and supervising a truly

diverse labor force.

Contract Staffing is where a wide range of hardworking Angkana Nathabheem, our new Contract Staffing Manager
people––teenage trainees and returning retirees, folks
with developmental disabilities and mobility impairments,
political refugees and former inmates, and many others
whose stories are yet untold—all come together in the
spirit of teamwork.

But Angkana’s story, for one, should no longer go untold.

In the mid-1990s, when Thailand was the world’s fastest-
องั คณาgrowing economy, Angkana (
as rendered in the

beautiful Thai script) was in charge of accounting and

purchasing for a five-firm construction conglomerate

in Bankgok. In 1997, a financial crisis seized much of

Southeast Asia, devaluing her country’s currency by half

and its stock market by three-quarters. That year, she came Richard, Afriquia, Dave, and Alaa at Cayuga Medical Center

"Hello World! This is Jacob from Challenge!"

If you regularly tune into Lite Rock or WHCU—or have favorite fictional worlds but his own real-life experience.

attended a recent Challenge event, contributed to a “My name is Jacob, and I have autism,” he’ll often say upon

#GivingTuesday campaign, or left a message on our introduction. “That means I learn differently, and that’s

answering machine—then you’ve heard Jacob M., The Voice okay!” Challenge’s Director of Prevocational Services, Briggs

of Challenge. Right from the top, with his unmistakable Seekins, says that this is one of the most important ways

catchphrase Hello world! exuberantly exclaimed to live that Jacob is using his voice of advocacy. “By talking openly

theatre audiences or over the airwaves to 50,000-plus about his diagnosis, especially to some of the youngest

Cayuga Radio Group listeners each week, Jacob lends people in our community, Jacob is modeling true inclusion

pizzazz and polish to every engagement we hire him to and demonstrating that a person with a disability can be

narrate or MC. an admired and supportive adult.”

Additionally, if you have preschool-aged children in your But it wasn’t always like this. “Jacob used to be

household, you might also know Jacob’s engaging voice nonspeaking,” says his mother, Deana, “and then for quite

work from his weekly storytelling residency at the Cornell a while his sentences would only be one or two words.”

Child Care Center or his invited performances at the Family Deana also recalls that it wasn’t until Jacob was 16 that

Reading Partnership’s Fire & Ice Festival. Young kids—and he apprehended and accepted the identity of autism that

those who are young at heart—are invariably captivated he now so proudly claims. Her first inkling that Jacob had

by Jacob’s pitch-perfect impressions of an immense cast of some performative inclinations was in running role-reversal

characters, from Porky Pig to Master Yoda and Big Bird to scenarios—a common therapeutic tool for children on the

Crash Bandicoot. spectrum to practice social skills. Jacob would take on the

character of his mother or one of his older sisters, showing

And, if you’ve ever gotten the chance to talk to Jacob in an incipient talent for good-natured mimicry. As the years

person, you know that he loves discussing not only his went on, Jacob expanded his repertoire by ad-libbing

puppet shows for younger children that Deana provided

care for, and he was eventually cast in a school play. “And

from there,” says Deana, “he just blossomed.”

Jacob M. behind the mic at the Lite Rock radio station By the time that Jacob came to Challenge after graduating
high school in 2015, he had a clear objective of becoming a
voice actor. His dedicated Employment Specialist, Demetri
Tzivaeris, has been instrumental in making this dream a
reality, as well as in helping Jacob to develop some broader
work skills that will serve him well no matter where his
career path leads. “In addition to the regular radio spots
and storytimes, we’ve been pursing work experiences at
the State Parks, the ReUse Center, and Challenge Imaging.
He’s particularly shown interest and aptitude in the work at
ReUse, which includes a lot of pricing and merchandising
and some cleaning and moving furniture. It’s been amazing
to see Jacob’s growth and I’m so proud of him.”

TAKE A LISTEN... ANYTIME! Deana concurs: “Challenge has been a great thing for
Jacob. Sudden change is always hard, but I’ve seen Jacob
become much more adaptable to different situations. He’s
done more than what many people thought he could—he
may always need some kind of guidance but I am confident
that he’s going to be able to work towards independence.”

Just go to aboutchallenge.org and use the virtual When asked about his ultimate professional goals, Jacob
jukebox to to play all of Jacob's radio commercials! says, “I could be in the movies, or I could do the voices for
video games. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do—
but I’m going to find out!” ▲

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Our Executive Administrative Assistant and United Way
campaign chair Stephanie Eastman presenting at BorgWarner

Mlūʻaaruilyant Rodriguez & Carlene Fields at a The Contract Staffin
Beechtree, a Challenge partner for the high aerial co

Youth Outreach Coordinator Aleah Rivera with a student (and Nicole Agaronnik and Rik Daniels performing wheelchair
aspiring special education teacher) at a TC3 open house ballroom dance at our inaugural NDEAM Summit at Cornell

�� c�m���i��...

ng team gets ready Jacob R. coaches Joe Sammons on the
ourse at Greek Peak Hobart machine in IC's Campus Center

Employment Specialist Ryan Notarpole stops by the frozen
section at Tops to check in with his buddy Colin W.

DICC preschoolers with educational blocks designed by Mars Cayuga Nursing's John Eilers-Lloyd helps prevocational
Flying Saucer Corp. and crafted by prevocational participants participants Mark P. and Jeffrey R. to assemble a sensory board

NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
US POSTAGE

PA I D

ITHACA, NY 14850
PERMIT NO. 34

Board of Directors

Steve Savage
Chair

Kelley Yeomans
Vice Chair

Kellie Page
Treasurer

Matt Valaik
Secretary

Todd Baker

Tony Eisenhut

Joe Mareane

Sheila McEnery

John Sammis

Teri Tarshus

Jennifer Tavares

Leadership Team

Joe Sammons
Executive Director

Ebru Arslan
Director of Finance

& Operations

Kim Pugliese
Strategic Director of
Human Resources

Briggs Seekins
Director of

Prevocational Services

Trisha Wilson
Director of

Employment & Youth
Services

Larry Workman
Director of Contract

Staffing

The newsletter you now hold was lovingly labeled, folded, and readied for mailing by a team of
Challenge prevocational participants, supported by Employment Specialist Erinn Seward!


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