This year marks the 76 observance of National Disability Employment Awareness Month and the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act by both congressional action and community commitment, October is set aside to emphasize the importance of ensuring that people with disabilities have full access to employment and community involvement.

That accessibility is heightened all the more during the national recovery from the covid-19 pandemic.

Good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines.

On this week's Prime Time we're going to discuss how efforts at the state and local level are connected to this year's theme of America's recovery powered by inclusion.

With us today is Kevin Morris, director of disability initiatives and the certified ADA coordinator.

He's at Greater Fort Wayne .

Also with us is Justin Klepper, the executive director of Community Transportation Network.

>> There's Justin and you met Kevin moments ago.

Gentlemen, thank you for being here.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for having us.

This is great and this does seem to be the important moment ,the right moment in time, if you will, where public conversation continues on matters of diversity, equity and inclusion.

And wouldn't disability employment be connected to all three of those letters?

>> Oh, in every way possible disabilities employment right now is more important than ever with the employment problems we're having nationwide with the lack of applicants for jobs, it's time for the employers to have to look at that untapped resource of people with disabilities that are technically just chomping at the bit to get to to a real job and just in certainly inclusion is is one of the literal drivers of CTM it seems to keep people connected.

>> Absolutely.

You know, transportation is is a major barrier for people with disabilities, especially those that want to go to work.

And you know, today we're transporting almost 70 people every single day who want to get to work whether they have a physical disability and they need wheelchair access or they just can't drive and they need a ride home.

>> So Kevin , less than twenty one percent of adults with disabilities in Indiana are working compared with 31 percent nationally.

There are lots of other statistic but what beyond the data and based on that data, what's your sense of our region's work with disability?

>> It's it's mixed.

First off, over the past three to four years we've seen an actual increase in employers who are being open minded thinking outside the box and at least doing the interviews with people with disabilities.

But there are still some folks that are hung up on the what ifs or I don't know what to do here.

I'm afraid of this and that's part of why we have the campaign that everybody's everybody wins when everybody's in and the whole concept is we just want the employer to say hey, I've got an applicant here that I know can do the job.

It doesn't matter that he or she uses a wheelchair.

It doesn't matter that they have to use a walker but they can do the job and if they just get that mindset we'll see an increase in the population that are actually working those with disabilities.

This is from work to include which is part of a partnership now that greater Fort Wayne has been having and you've been working alongside that body for a while with his work to include work to include is actually a statewide program that is tied to the Governor's Council for People with Disabilities.

It was put into motion after two thousand and seventeen a lot of legislation there pushed it through the employment first concept of people with disabilities should have good meaningful employment in the community and that needs to be a top priority were to include roll out of that and now we work here locally with the Allen County Group to get the word out to spread the message not only here in October like the billboard you're seeing right now a John Graham from mobile radio.

He'll be featured on billboards all over Fort Wayne .

We don't get the message out that there are people out there doing the work.

They have some type of disability and they do a great job that the poster you saw a few minutes ago from Seaton.

I think that Justin can actually talk more to that because that's one of the young men that works for him.

>> It is.

You know, that is Allen Daylor.

He is one of our team members that works in the office at Seaton and I can truly say that he is one of the most passionate employees we have on our team and my first day on the job actually informed me that he was gunning for my position as executive director.

>> And so, you know, that's one thing that I have worked hard to share with employers that there are talents and gifts and skills that everybody has that is simply building the position that works best for their strengths.

>> Kevin , you have been building in your own position in capacity a greater fort Wayne , a three year initial commitment through a US foundation recently renewed congratulations.

>> Thank you.

But with all that expansion as well within your department more than just the connector between those seeking and those wishing to be sun you we started the program back in twenty eighteen doing just that with the connections started working with organizations like Work to include and then agencies like Justin and Sutton and how we can all pull that together now we've gone one step further and I recently acquired my national certification as an AIDS coordinator.

My job is to help businesses make their business more accessible, more inclusive for their customers and their employees and better yet their future employees.

So I'll come in and do a full assessment free of charge.

And the nice thing is I'm not a government official.

Whatever I find, whatever we see, whatever we talk about, it's just between me and the business and it gives them the opportunity to take whatever they're doing and do it better and that's the concept of exclusivity.

And really my goal in this role is to help everybody become more universal in their design when they open a business that it's it's set up for everybody to come in no matter what your situation don't have to do special this or special that it's kind of like going to Promenade Park.

That's a universal design system where you can wander the park freely without worrying about whether you're in a wheelchair or whether you have to use a walker or even if you're blind.

It's set up to handle that as well.

These points of expansion are represented graphically in something we can share the disability initiative there it is of the goal for a more inclusive workforce and that's recruitment and retention and also the part two about welcoming New residents touch on that.

>> That is part of our On Board Fort Wayne program actually program that was born out of our leadership Fort Wayne program that Justin used to lead back in the day and some of the participants in leadership Fort Wayne last year put together on board Fort Wayne that set up.

So let's say Bruce , you're relocating to Fort Wayne for a job, OK, you're coming here.

You don't know anything about Fort Wayne on board.

Fort Wayne is going to help you figure the city out and better yet the trailing spouse, they're going to help that spouse become familiar with Fort Wayne and assist with employment and with my position with on board Fort Wayne , I specialize in working with families who have somebody in the family with a disability connecting them to all of the resources that we have here in Indiana whether it's a Medicaid waiver or disabilities, employment, disabilities, transportation that's what we do it board Fort Wayne brand new program and it's we love it.

It's just a great place to to come and really figure out Fort Wayne , we wish you well with that and those connections and the kinds of growth that can be seen through that could well mean more passengers for cotton.

I like the notion of accessibility being a key to increasing opportunity as being taken from the work to include Employment First Plant one of the big bullet points out of that and you know this is the importance of reliable transportation tied to CTA and tell us about the Community Transportation Network.

>> So community transportation Network exists to ease the burden of transportation so that more people can maintain life sustaining and purposeful connections in the community and that's that purposeful connection that we're really talking about today that connection to employment, that connection to opportunities.

>> That's really what we're all about and what we're trying to further within the community.

>> Reliable transportation for so many in our community is a barrier that most folks don't realize.

I got to the studio today in my car as a Jew, as a Jew we don't often think about the ride because we have our own vehicles.

We are a very auto centric community and so because that we forget about those that don't have a car or they don't have access to a reliable car, their family doesn't have access, it could very well be that a family member doesn't have an accessible vehicle to get someone to work and so that's where someone like C10 can step in and in fact, Kevin , I'm sure the point is brought home the job doesn't help if I can't get there from here.

>> Exactly.

One of the first things I did when I joined Greater Fort Wayne was I put maps in my office for Citilink and Citilink access a very nice system here in but it doesn't take you enough places in the Metroplex to get people to work all the time.

>> They do a great job and what they do but that's where Justin and his group comes in with Seaton is they fill the gaps in so many ways to get to get people to work.

>> So walk me through one of the gaps if I in fact am somebody with that employment opportunity but need that assistance, what's step one and step three?

>> Well, I mean step one is you know, I I want a job but how do I get to the interview?

>> I mean folks often don't even think about needing a ride to the interview and so we have folks that they'll call us and say I need a ride.

>> We work with them.

We we identify the right time and oftentimes we find folks are flexible.

You know, they're willing to work with us on our schedules because we fill up three to five days out on our routes but we get them the ride and we get them to the employment location for the interview and then the next step is OK, can you get me to work every day or three days a week?

>> And you know, that was just the case earlier this summer with a gentleman, Jamal, who needed access to one of our larger health care providers for work every day and we were able to work it out, fit it in and get him to work.

>> Is there a perception that you're a city service?

>> Oh yeah.

It's we are often confused with Citilink and you know, I there's no no negatives or anything like that with us and Citilink we love Citilink and work very closely with them but we are very different.

We are a private nonprofit which means we can say yes and no to the services that we're providing and when we're providing them and that enables us to develop what we call standing orders which are standing order is when we have the same five people that we're picking up every morning and every day.

And so because we can operate independently, we can create that route that works for us, that works for our writers and that works for the employer.

>> Over one hundred thousand troops annually and like Kevin , you have your own network going over 80 partnering agencies partnering in what way?

>> So oftentimes sweetners actually recognized as the Medical Transportation Service that we work with low income seniors and people with disabilities and on a given year we do about 27 to twenty eight thousand trips just for that population.

>> On the flip side for work trips we do about 16 or eighteen thousand trips.

>> The rest is actually private charter service we do for other nonprofit agencies to support their transportation needs transportation is a barrier for a lot of different people including organizations and really seeks to fill that gap and as we say ease that burden.

>> Yeah, one of the things that apparently can help ease a burden would be the upcoming expansion for CPT and I understand some ground was broken a month or so ago.

>> We did.

We just broke ground on a satellite facility in New Haven actually just over the line.

So we keep both mares and the commissioners and everybody all happy and it is starting out as a fifteen thousand square foot facility on South Maple Crest and Muehler Road.

Some folks still confuse South Maple Crest with Adams Center because that's what it's always been but it's starting as fifteen thousand square foot satellite garage that can house up to eighteen transit vans which are the vans that you see all over the community.

We need the garage because we've maxed out our space, our current facility.

These pictures that you're seeing vehicles are lined up all throughout thirty six thousand square feet of space and we have vehicles we have to park outside and a big part of our business is that lift on the end.

It is a hydraulic lift that if we're parked outside below freezing that lift doesn't work and if the lift doesn't work we don't work and if we don't work then folks like Matt can't get to work and so this satellite garage will allow us to expand our services and increase our presence in southeast Fort Wayne in eastern Allen County and this is where it comes down to the idea that you're not just buying a life insurance policy, you're buying peace of mind.

You're not being you're not just involving yourself with transportation.

>> You describe it as representing freedom.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, it's when we started that building project, the lead donor who actually gave us fifty two percent of the land that we're building on.

He put it this way and he's you know, late thirties, early forties and goes I'm looking at this as an investment in my future because at some point I'm going to need GTN and that that's really what this is all about.

It's about making sure that we're here today for those that need us and for tomorrow.

>> And I'm sensing a partnership of a kind of obviously between Kevin or work with through greater Fort Wayne and Justin's.

Well, definitely it has to be because the number one concern like you pointed earlier is transportation to and from work or whatever.

And I sinking while he was talking.

When you look at my ADA assessment form that I fill out for a business, the number one question I answer is is this building accessible through public transportation or other similar services?

That's the number one question on the form.

I feel good because I know how well we we integrate CityLink into the city and city link access and then I know that there is just in Washington and his crew filling in that the rest for us and getting people to where they need to be.

>> Yeah.

How has covid-19 affected the work that you both do?

>> What has this time frame of a year and a half and I think that was caught on camera so that was it was a very you want to elaborate or was the sound effect on it?

>> You know, C10 for our challenge with work trips for people with disabilities we built those routes to house anywhere from six to eight or nine people on a vehicle and we drive these larger transit vans so that we can maximize the amount of people on or out.

>> The challenge with the pandemic was for a very long time up until May 1st this year we had a social distancing order and so we could only put three people on a vehicle at any given time and so the number of people that got to work every day was cut almost in half because of the pandemic right.

And that was hard because you're you're not just dealing with individuals who want to get to work and want to earn a paycheck but those that couldn't get to work were dealing with self isolation.

>> They were dealing with true new mental health barriers that wasn't healthy.

And Kevin , in your conversations in your day to day, I'm wondering if there is an upside or had been in any way an upside to the down nature of the of covered in that it's creating more opportunities for folks to work from home?

Can people who disability or no is there renewed opportunity where there wasn't before you know, working from home, working from a remote site of any kind?

Well, something that kind of was an end thing for a while in the business world and then it went away and covid-19 19 did reopen that for us.

And right now people who have disabilities, especially a big mobility issues or special medical schedules, et cetera, if they can work from their home which covid-19 is proved, we can they can fulfill a lot of jobs.

>> One young man I was talking with who who is blind actually have found that he could go back into the customer service world again and do telephone customer service for contracted companies from the safety of his home didn't have to worry about being able to get to and from or being able to have his workstation equipped properly.

He had everything he needed right there in his home to do the job and that is like I said, open that all back up again to not only people with disabilities but also to workers as a whole.

>> So getting the attention of the business community about indeed a differently abled but nevertheless skilled and available and and committed workforce what are some of the strategies that you're finding you're using now that have either been in inspired as byproducts of the pandemic or finally coming of age because technology is allowing you to get the word out in a different way and technology is the big thing that's become the selling point.

I will say that another thing that covid-19 did was it brought us all together closely for a while technologically and that helped our communications travel faster.

We got to talk to more people.

I could sit down in my dining room table and I could talk to twenty four investors of Greater Fort Wayne in a single day rather than scheduling three or four or five appointments.

And the more people I talked to the more people that hear the story of the success I had as an employer employing people with disabilities in my businesses the more they can see how it could work for them.

>> Is the is there such a thing as a difficulty reading that in terms of perception among potential employers to say as you would say if I can just get a person past the accommodation question or if I can get people past the training question or the culture question or the the dependability question, I'll tell you what worked for me as an employer this goes back almost twenty years.

I had I had a candidate sitting in my office and I didn't know what to do.

He was deaf.

I didn't know what to do and I forced myself as an employer to find a way to get through that interview and then I hired him and I've never looked back.

>> That was the turning point for me.

So if we can get the employers to simply open their doors and do a few interviews to talk with somebody or do a few Zoome calls and talk with those candidates to see that there's good talent out there waiting for them, you know, I think that'll do a lot for it.

>> One of the dynamics we haven't touched on yet within the disability initiative is the idea of building pathways to careers in the skilled trades for students with disabilities for the Made by Me program made by Me is a program that was started under a different name a few years back.

>> It has evolved into made by me and actually it's a program that's dedicated to letting high school students see that if college is not what they really want to do, there's another opportunity that there is a way to become employed in the skilled trades and get the proper training and it's actually a coalition.

>> I think we have 50 or 60 different businesses, educational entities, et cetera involved in this and the whole process is showing these kids that there's an option.

A college bound kids can participate as well.

But then my part of it is bringing in people with disabilities and learning the skilled trades.

We we're talking we're talking triple triple figure incomes in some of these trades that can be done no matter what your physical ability as long as you can be taught to do it.

Our job to get that message out there and pull all the parties together and so in the work of that connection, Justin, I'm imagining that you're both joined at the connection with with potential clients to be able to show how yours is another part of the variables I don't have to think about as an employer to get to the equation for hiring.

Absolutely.

And that's where someone like Kevin and his value in this initiative comes into play because he's having conversations with employers he may talk to a few different employers that could be hiring people with disabilities and if they're all within the same vicinity, that helps Seaton to actually coordinate that trip because we are at that point picking up five people and dropping them all off the same time and that helps us be as efficient as possible with our routing.

>> I like to talk about one more thing before we get too far down the road.

We skipped over retention earlier and talked about a very, very briefly but we have an example of retention and how we work together already.

Justin called me one day and said Kevin , I've got a an employee working for me that's kind of hit a bump in the road and and I'm trying to find out where to go next.

>> And that next step was just as easy as me picking up a phone and calling somebody who I knew had a connection to who he was working with.

Next thing you know, the person is working with Justin and with the staff and today success story absolutely.

In your conversations with business, both of you, you feel encouraged, challenged.

There are always those days even Babe Ruth struck out but generally speaking going forward for disabilities as advocates are we on the kind of path that we all want to believe we can be walking?

>> We are and that comes courtesy of organizations like the foundation C10 Greater Fort Wayne's Disabilities Initiatives and the myriad of other people out there and there are thousands of people working for this cause in the state of Indiana and Fort Wayne is something that we should hold up a little bit of a celebration for how well we move forward in that area of disabilities employment, disabilities, transportation.

It's a great place to live just about you.

>> You know, I think we have so much to be thankful for in our community in the way in which we're moving forward that we've got folks ready to jump in.

We've got employers that are asking more questions.

I mean I was part of a webinar last month who with employers and folks around the state who are asking, you know, how do I get other folks to hire people with disabilities?

And you know, one of the things that I continue to hear from or was hearing especially in that webinar discussion was around accommodations and you know, we talk about I talk about accommodations from a transportation perspective and and how we look at that.

But we also think about the workplace accommodations and what came into those.

And you know, one of my statements and Kevin you can speak to this certainly a lot more than I can but so many of the accommodations that take place in the workplace are very inexpensive or free completely.

I mean it's just simply looking at something from a different perspective that's what we're doing and we'll be able to have those conversations by phone and or through website because contact information needs to come because we're out of conversation time.

But here is one way you can have a conversation is to reach out to Justin and his staff at CTM by biog or by phone and also to speak to Kevin at Greater Fort Wayne Inc.com and you see the phone number there as well just in.

Klepper is the executive director of the Community Transportation Network and Kevin Moore, director of disability initiatives at Greater Fort Wayne .

Gentlemen, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you and good luck for the coming months.

Thank you.

And for all of you, thank you for allowing us to be a part of your Friday night for all with prime time Saints.

Take care and we'll see you soon.

Good night