October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month

The 2007 theme for National Disability Employment Month is “Workers with Disabilities: Talent for a Winning Team.”  The theme highlights the fact that workers with disabilities are a rich source of skill, talent and ambition that is ever willing to become a great contribution to the workplace.

At Service Enterprises, Inc., we see this every day in the individuals we serve.  For more than 35 years, Service Enterprises, Inc., with offices in Redwood Falls and Marshall, has been providing vocational training, employment and other services to individuals with developmental disabilities, mental illness and other barriers to employment.

Individuals served through Service Enterprises are eager to please and contribute in the workplace whether in the community or at our center-based facility.  Susan, for example, has taken her sewing talent and put it to use doing sewing from her home for Clarkfield Outdoors.  Lita has developed a paper shredding business and with the use of her adaptive device can type invoices and other necessary paper work.  Leroy’s attention to detail make him the perfect candidate to work at folding for bulk mailings or other jobs that require precision.

Many of the individuals we serve have pleasant a personality and demeanor which make them ideal workers at various community sites, including hotel cleaning jobs, cleaning individual homes through Merry Maids, and working at Super America and Gil-Mor Manor.  

Individuals served through Service Enterprises also use their talents to contribute to the communities in which they live.  Mike uses his musical talents to sing or play guitar at his church.  David is a music electronics buff and enjoys being a disc jockey for events.  Others who are served through Service Enterprises have participated in Redwood Area Theater productions and are involved in volunteer activities.

Service Enterprises, Inc. has teamed up this past year with more than 65 businesses in Marshall, Redwood Falls and surrounding communities to provide workers and contract work of all types in what has proved to be a win-win situation for all involved.  Since the mid-1980s, Service Enterprises has been providing laundry services at Redwood Area Hospital.  In the 1990s, partnerships were developed with the Redwood County Recycling Center, Hacker’s Tree Farm, Nursery and Greenhouse, Redwood Gazette and Livewire and Lower Sioux Lodge.  Ongoing working relationships also exist with Jonti-Craft in Wabasso, Hoffco in Wood Lake, Teacher Federal Credit Union in Renville, Waste Management, Hi-Rel Industries, Ecowater, McLaughlin and Schulz, the Marshall Independent and many other businesses have partnered with Service Enterprises this past year.