Montana Choice:
Employment Success Stories from Rural Montana

edited by Nancy Maxson

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

R. Timm Vogelsberg and B. Roger Shelley, The University of Montana Rural Institute
Sue Mohr, Tom Hayes, and Lisa Newman, Montana Job Training Partnership
Frank Odasz, Lone Eagle Consulting
Julie Hallock, Northeast Montana Job Service/Workforce Center
Ron Rides at the Door, Rocky Mountain Front Workforce Center
Richard Clautu, Bitterroot Job Service/Workforce Center
Bob Nichols, Ravalli Services Community Employment
Dave Coleman, Southwest Montana Workforce Center
Linda Quinlin, The University of Montana Printing and Graphic Services

The many Montanans who have participated in the Montana/Wyoming: Careers through Partnerships and Montana Choice: Customized Employment projects.

While funds for this publication come in part through a provider agreement #03200 with the Montana Job Training Partners/ U. S. Department of Labor/Office of Disability Employment Projects Montana Choice: Customized Employment project, opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of funding agencies.

The University of Montana Rural Institute
Adult Community Services and Supports Department
52 Corbin Hall
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812
(877) 243-2476 Toll Free
http://ruralinstitute.umt.edu

Contact Information

To find out more about the Montana Choice project you can contact:

Lisa Newman, Project Director
Montana Job Training Partnership
302 N. Last Chance Gulch, Suite 409
Helena, MT 59601
(406) 444-1330
lnewman@mjtp.org

B. Roger Shelley, Project Director
The Rural Institute
52 Corbin Hall
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812
Home Office: (406) 445-9168
r.shelley@worldnet.att.net

Frank Odasz
Lone Eagle Consulting
2200 Rebich Lane
Dillon, MT 59725
(406) 683-6270
frank@lone-eagles.com
http://lone-eagles.com

To find out if you are eligible to enroll in the project, you may contact the Workforce Center or project administrator in your area.

Julie Hallock
Northeast Montana Job Service/Workforce Center
74 4th St. North
Glasgow, MT 59230
(406) 228-9369
jhallock@state.mt.us

Ron Rides at the Door
Rocky Mountain Front
Workforce Center
501 E. Main
Cutbank, MT 59427
(406) 873-2191
rridesatthedoor@state.mt.us

Richard Clautu
Bitterroot Job Service/
Workforce Center
333 W. Main
Hamilton, MT 59840
(406) 375-6047
rclautu@state.mt.us

Bob Nichols
Ravalli Services
Community Employment
Box 558
Hamilton, MT 59840
(406) 363-5400
rsc@cybernet1.com

Dave Coleman
Southwest Montana Workforce Center
2201 White Blvd.
Butte, MT 59701
(406) 494-0310
dcoleman@state.mt.us

Introduction: Roger's Mice

By Nancy Maxson,
The University of Montana Rural Institute

Roger Shelley is the Montana University Rural Institute Project Director who provides training and technical assistance for two Montana Job Training Partnership-administered and U.S. Department of Labor-funded projects: Montana/Wyoming Careers through Partnerships and Montana Choice: Customized Employment. What that means is that Roger circumnavigates the state of Montana about eight times a year, working with One-Stop Workforce Centers in Glasgow, Butte, Hamilton, and Cutbank, helping people with disabilities achieve their employment dreams.

Roger lives on a "ranchette" in Roberts, Montana, where he enjoys the wonders of Montana's wildlife: deer, mountain lions, moose, and mice. Some time ago a mouse family moved into Roger's SUV and began doing what all mice families do: having baby mice. Now, when Roger drives around the state, his four-legged stowaways go with him. Every once in a while, when he is in Cutbank providing technical assistance to the One Stop Center (or Hamilton, or Glasgow), a mouse will jump out his car and scurry off to make a new mouse home in the new town.

When Roger told me this story about mice escaping from his car, I immediately thought of Cinderella's pumpkin coach and the enchanted mice that helped her make it to the ball. I'm sure Roger's mice aren't enchanted, but there is something magical about his projects. Roger, working with the Montana Job Training Partnership (MJTP) and the staff at Montana's One-Stop Centers, make dreams come true.

In this booklet, you will read and hear stories about peoples' employment dreams coming true. These are no fairy tales. These are Montanans with disabilities who have accessed Department of Labor funds and transformed their lives. What makes their stories fantastic is the power of their dreams and the role those dreams played in their ultimate employment success.

Roger has been helping people with disabilities find jobs or create their own small business for about 15 years. He always begins his work with a new individual the same way - by listening to the person's dreams. In Roger's view, the best job match begins with personal choice. When that choice comes from heart, passion and commitment come with it. Add some resources, in this case from the Department of Labor, success follows. Personal satisfaction comes close behind. And that is truly enchanted.

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The Montana Choice & Montana/Wyoming Careers Through Partnerships Projects

By Lisa Newman, Project Director
Montana Job Training Partnership

The Montana/Wyoming Careers through Partnerships and the Montana Choice: Customized Employment Projects are two disability employment grants funded by the US Department of Labor. The projects are administered by the Montana Job Training Partnership, Inc. (MJTP). The projects' philosophy embraces customer choice and self-determination, and promotes community-based partnerships.

MJTP is collaborating with the University of Montana Rural Institute, Roger Shelley of Roberts Consulting, and Frank Odasz of Lone Eagle Consulting on the Montana Choice project. The local collaborating agencies include: Bitterroot Workforce Center and Ravalli Services Corp., in Hamilton; Northeast Montana Workforce Center and Great Northern Development in Glasgow and Wolf Point; Rocky Mountain Front Workforce in Cut Bank and Opportunities, Inc., in Great Falls; and Southwest Montana Workforce Center and Career Futures in Butte.

Project objectives are to provide capacity building activities for front-line staff; technical assistance to service providers and individuals with disabilities; direct client services to individuals with disabilities with an emphasis on recruiting minorities with disabilities; and to place a percent of participants in unsubsidized employment.

Services to job seekers that are available under this project include: person-centered career planning, situational assessments, paid work experience, job search assistance/job carving, basic education, occupational skills training, entrepreneurial/micro business development, job readiness/career preparation, life skills training, On-the-Job training, job coaching, and supportive services.

The projects are documenting lessons learned and best practices for the US Department of Labor. What we've learned:

• Most individuals know what they want to do, and customer choice and self-determination are the keys to success.



• Collaborative community-based supported employment practices provide formal and informal supports for working participants.



• Post-employment services are vital to job retention or career advancement.



• Self-employment is a viable option for employment, particularly in rural areas. Not only does self-employment allow individuals to work out of their home, but often it provides accommodations such as flexible work schedules and accessible work areas. Self-employment also empowers individuals to establish partnerships that benefit their interests.
  


• Costs to individual programs are decreased when funds are leveraged from several sources such as Vocational Rehabilitation or Social Security Work Incentives and Plans to Achieve Self Support.

This publication contains success stories from the projects, based on interviews with the participants and local program managers. These individuals tell their own stories on the CD enclosed in the publication. You can also watch the video by clicking on the icon at the top on the Montana Choice page. We find their stories inspiring, and hope you do too.

Blending Funding for Employment Success

By B. Roger Shelley
The University of Montana Rural Institute

One of the successful strategies the Montana Choice: Customized Employment and the Montana/Wyoming Careers through Partnerships projects have used is "blended funding" to help individuals achieve their employment goals.

-Blended funding is based on "systems" trust
-Blended funding is person-centered
-Blended funding is timely
-Blended funding allows flexibility

The partnerships developed by local service agencies - Vocational Rehabilitation, Workforce Centers, Department of Labor, Job Service - to support job seekers with disabilities in Montana have been well documented throughout the past several years. "Blended funding" is a natural outcome of these relationships. The partnerships have produced successful outcomes for individuals and the agencies, and simultaneously built trust among the agencies and various funding systems.

These public service entities hold certain values in common:

-satisfactory employment outcomes for their customers,
-community service, and
-being a valued community resource.

Because of these values, the agencies work to help each Montanan with a disability achieve his/her individual goal. The person is at the center of the employment plan and achieving that individual's goal is how the agencies measure success.

Each organization brings relevant resources to the table, including, but certainly not limited to, the ability to contribute dollars to a person's employment goal. These dollars purchase training, equipment, and support services. Sometimes an agency will not be able to pay for certain expenses by a particular deadline. By blending funding, the partnership has the flexibility to pay expenses more quickly.

Each organization also brings a wealth of experience in producing credible results for their customers in the communities where they reside. The end result is the ability to leverage resources in combination so people can realize their employment dreams.

Examples of Blended Funding 2004

(Considering Social Security PASS Plan for truck: $29,000)

"Got a Goal, Do it"

By Doreen Hester,
Owner of D.J.'s Paws-itively Purrfect Parlor and
Nancy Maxson,
The University of Montana Rural Institute

“I was 60 years old when I started this, and who would have known I would enjoy it this much,” says Doreen Hester, the owner/operator of D.J.’s Paws-itively Purr-fect Parlor . “I just love pets."

”Doreen is a professional dog groomer in Cutbank, Montana. “I have the business set up in my basement at this time and I do plan on remodeling my garage and putting my business out there.” She does day-sitting for dogs and will also do sitting for a weekend or even a couple of weeks. The dogs that stay overnight “have to be compatible with my dog because they live in my house with me. I don’t have a kennel at this time.”

Doreen saw an article in her local paper about a dog grooming school in Havre, Montana. “It just really interested me and I was having a lot of physical problems at that time.” She was hoping to find some kind of work she could do out of her own home. But, “I had no help at all, no way of ever getting the finances” to pay the school fees.

A year earlier, Doreen had visited the Cutbank Job Service/Workforce Center. Geri Baker, the Office Manager for the Workforce Service, helped Doreen get “a disability clause due to the fact that I had contracted rheumatoid arthritis.” This did not mean Doreen was qualified for Social Security Disability Insurance, but with her disability status, Doreen was able to access some of the programs at the Workforce Center for people with disabilities.

With her new idea of going to dog grooming school, Doreen went back to the Workforce Center.

“I went down there thinking maybe they might have something else for me, and lo and behold Dawn [Barrett] and Michele [Rides at the Door] just went full bore.” They helped Doreen apply for Montana/Wyoming Careers through Partnerships funds, administered by the Montana Job Training Partnership. “Within five-six weeks, I was in the school. The school started October 1 and I had everything I needed in before that. Dawn and Michelle worked it out, which was just so awesome.”

Doreen attended the Montana School for Professional Dog Groomers in Havre for three and half months. “They asked me to come back for two more weeks just because I was having so much fun there. I just really enjoyed it. I didn't’t realize how much went into grooming a dog, basically.”

Altogether, staff at the Cutbank Workforce Center helped Doreen access $3,100 in funds to pay for her schooling and set her up in a business in her own home. “I think there were two or three programs they used. They all worked together to get me into the program that fast.”

Doreen offers the following advice to other people with disabilities thinking about starting their own business. “My main advice I would say, is just if you’ve got a goal, do it.”

Contact Information for Doreen Hester:

Doreen Hester
D.J.'s Paws-itively Purr-fect Parlor
702 E. Main
Cutbank, MT 59427
(406) 873-4658

Never Stop Chasing Your Dreams

By Julie Hallock,
Northeast Montana Workforce Center and
Nancy Maxson,
The University of Montana Rural Institute

My name is Julie Hallock. I am a facilitator at the Glasgow, Montana Job Service/Workforce Center of the Montana Job Training Partnership's Montana Choice: Customized Employment project. Montana Choice provides funds to help Montanans with disabilities achieve their employment dreams.

One of our main goals for the project here in Glasgow was to assist the folks with disabilities who are served at the Milk River Activities Center, a sheltered workshop and local developmental disabilities service provider.

One of the people served at Milk River that I know very well is Palmer Garsjo. I attended Milk River's open house during the Christmas season and Palmer presented me with a bag of shredded paper as a gift. Shredding is something that Palmer has always loved to do. I think Palmer was telling me not to forget him - he somehow associated me with employment and shredding because I used to work at the activities center. A few months later, we pulled together a team to help Palmer access funds and get him some employment. Palmer's team included him, his brother (who is his Representative Payee), other family members, and staff from Milk River who support him. Since Palmer loved to shred, we helped him set up his own small shredding business: Secure Shreds.

We decided what equipment he would need. After looking at some pictures, he chose some things and we made decisions about what we should do, how we should get started. With $1,800 in Montana Choice funds, Palmer purchased a shredder, a cart to move it around, a storage cabinet to keep it in at the Milk River workshop, plastic bags and other shredding supplies, and three secure drop-off boxes where customers could drop off their papers to be shredded. The drop-off boxes are set up at the Senior Citizens Center, Milk River, and in our Job Service office.

Palmer charges $.75 a pound for shredding, but offers his services free to senior citizens in exchange for having his drop-off box at their center. He started shredding for the Health Department and is doing some work here, at the Job Service, for the work program and for the Welfare Office. He's also shredding for Go Postal, a building and office that is just starting next door to us and will soon be expanding his customer base to include Hi-Line Homes.

Montana Choice funds also paid for some marketing materials for Palmer. We ran a logo contest for his business and purchased business cards, hats, and shirts with the new logo. He has also done some paid advertising. But the best marketing happened by chance. He has been featured in the local newspaper. Palmer was celebrating his 50th birthday and the newspaper gave him the whole front page spread, with a picture and information about his shredding business. The article talked about how we should never stop chasing our dreams and employment is really possible.

For the People

By Maynard Kicking Woman,
Owner of Medicine Eagle Recording and
Nancy Maxson,
The University of Montana Rural Institute

Maynard Kicking Woman was born in Browning, Montana on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. In 1975 "I became a drum singer, a Native American singer." After a quarter century of "drumming and singing and traveling around, I learned a lot about how to organize Pow Wows, how to run them, set them up." As a singer and drummer himself, Maynard paid particular attention to the other musical groups. "I started treating the groups really good cause I felt maybe this is something I need, something I need to do. I noticed that there were some people that were doing some recordings. "

In his community, Maynard was recognized as "the guy who runs the sound system for the North American Indian Days event" (one of the largest Indian musical events in the country). Through his community connections, he learned about a program that might provide him funding to expand his sound system and recording business Medicine Eagle Recording. "They introduced me to a program up here at the school, and I went and talked to a guy in Cutbank" at the Job Service/Workforce Center. "He started telling me about these things they could do for me, and I said oh, awesome."

But Maynard had tried to access other programs in the past, and things had never worked out for him. "After a while I was kind of skeptical. I came home and thought about it and I told my old lady about it and she said 'what's the catch?'" He was pleasantly surprised by how easily and quickly he was able to access Montana Careers through Partnerships funds to help him expand his business. These funds, administered by the Montana Job Training Partnership, help people with disabilities find employment or start their own small businesses. With the help of Ron Rides at the Door at the Cutbank Workforce Center, Maynard received $2,400 to purchase a sound board, portable recording equipment, and microphones. "I want to work with Ron, he's assisted a lot. "

With his new equipment, Maynard "got a contract for $3,500 from the North American Indian Days sound system, and that included a combo CD. I'm recording every group that's there." During the event, "we'll be recording on a cassette and then we get back here to the studio, we will start transfer to CDs." Maynard will compile the music onto a CD and then sell them in bulk to the artists featured on the recording. "That's where our money comes from. They buy from us at a price of $5 a CD and $4 a cassette, but they have to buy a minimum of 50, each. Then they'll turn around and sell their product for $13-14. That's their money. There's no royalties." Maynard keeps the master "because we have the copyright." "I just want to record. I don't want to distribute. It's too much work. I don't have the equipment to do it. I don't have the facility."

He is also interested in using his new equipment to record tribal history. "I want to do some documentaries. I want to go and record elderly people in the tribe... But I need to get a grant to do that first. And there are grants out there that you can utilize to talk to elderly people."

Maynard wants Medicine Eagle Recording to be a benefit for children as well as the elderly. "I want this business to be a long-term thing. I want it to go on and I want to teach younger kids to come in and learn how to do this." Both the skills of working with the recording equipment and learning about Native American music would be good. "I want to do things for the kids rather than have them running around and raising hell. They can come in the studio and sit there and dink around with this stuff and maybe make themselves a whole tape that they want."

He hopes "the people will appreciate what I do. The business is primarily, really, for the Indian people. It's for the musicians, the artists, the educators, whatever. It's not mine. It's for the people. So people will know who the Blackfeet people are. We want to get on the internet and shoot it out on the internet. That's what we want to do. So the people will know the Blackfeet people exist right here "

Contact Information for Maynard Kicking Woman:

Maynard Kicking Woman
Medicine Eagle Recording
P. O. Box 1438
Browning, MT 59417
(406) 338-3583

Neighborly Inspiration

By Jenna Bell,
Owner Fancy Fingers and
Nancy Maxson
The University of Montana Rural Institute

Jenna Bell's next door neighbor Ashley frequently did her nails and "I just felt that I wanted to really do nails because I thought I would be good at it and I would like it." That neighborly act inspired Jenna to open her own nail salon in Glasgow, Montana, called Fancy Fingers.

Jenna had graduated from the local high school and then went to nail technician school. She decided to return home and use her new skills. She visited the Glasgow Job Service/Workforce Center for help. The Workforce Center was taking part in two Montana Job Training Partnership projects: Montana/Wyoming Careers through Partnerships and Montana Choice: Customized Employment. The Job Service enrolled Jenna in the projects and helped her open a main-street business. Julie Hallock from the Workforce Center worked with Jenna.

Once Jenna decided she wanted to start her own small business, Julie helped her qualify for funding from the two projects. Jenna received $2,100 from the Montana Careers project and $2,200 from the Montana Choice project to get her business started. With that money she purchased a manicure table, manicure chair, pedicure chair, hand spa, and the various supplies necessary to set up her nail salon. Julie and the projects "provided me with a table and all my supplies so I could do my own job, so I had enough money to start out and pay for rent, too." Some of the Montana Choice funds paid for rent for several months, while she gets the business off the ground. Jenna opened a separate business account for Fancy Fingers and her uncle, who is an accountant, is making sure she pays all her self-employment taxes each month.

Jenna marketed her business in several ways. Montana Choice paid to have business cards designed and printed. "I advertised on the radio", and placed an ad in the local weekly newspaper The Courier. Jenna has co-sponsored several holiday specials, with other business in the community, such as Mother's Day, Back to School, Prom Week. This has helped her become part of the larger business community. She has an ad in a local one-page business flier that is printed and circulated in the area everyday. "Just coming to work and showing people I'm here helps bring in business. It's good that people know I'm here."

Jenna likes having her own business "I get to be on my own, do my own things. I like working with people a lot".

Contact Information:

Jenna Bell, Owner Operator
Fancy Fingers
402 2nd Ave
Glasgow, MT 59230
(406) 230-0051

Pursue Your Dream

By Michael Fletcher,
Owner Bigsky Inkjet

Anyone who has a dream needs to pursue that dream, despite whatever anyone says to the contrary. Put your idea together, put it on paper, work through the rough spots if you believe that it can happen.

I've been in computers for a long time and I thought about printers and what was available here in the Bitterroot Valley. Unfortunately, there wasn't really a lot in the supply of printers and there wasn't a place to buy printers here. So I thought, why not start something that would benefit the valley? Recycled cartridges - inkjet and laser - seemed to be the niche that was missing. So here I am with my new business, Bigsky Inkjet, and it seems to be doing ok.

I got help at the Bitterroot Job Service/Workforce Center and Montana Vocational Rehabilitation. I was able to access funding through the Montana Careers through Partnerships project, administered through the Montana Job Training Partnership. They helped me refine my business idea.

Naturally it started with a business plan and then I had to go from the business plan to reality. I had to figure out, budget-wise, how to make the plan work. After a lot of research, I found a company that sold the equipment necessary to do a professional job of remanufacturing and refilling cartridges that fit into the budget. I wrote them and they also let me know that they offered a school, if of course I purchased my equipment through them.

I did purchase equipment through them and I did go to school. Montana Vocational Rehabilitation paid for this initial equipment and schooling. It was a three day course, and while that may sound like a short course, it was three full days. You could stay for the fourth or fifth day. But as I had been in the field of computers before, I felt that three days was sufficient for me. I felt really comfortable after that training period and so I came back raring to go.

But there wasn't quite enough money for my business, so the people at the Workforce Center looked into other sources and were able to get additional funds through Montana Job Training Partnership's Montana Choice: Customized Employment project. With the combination of the funds from the two Montana Job Training Partnership projects and Montana Vocational Rehabilitation, I was able to get a pretty solid foothold on this. I'm just continuing to keep things going on a solid foundation.

Marketing my business hasn't been that difficult. I've been getting the word out through advertising. In the local advertising newspaper, "Tidbits," I have 1 1/2 X 5 inch ad running almost each week, and the size does change from time to time, but I get a lot of business that way.

It seems that my market right now is the professional market. I have the mortgage companies, I have attorneys, psychologists, and various other professional people and it seems that it is going to expand. I've also had brochures, or fliers if you will, printed up that I will be mailing and marketing by business - so that the attorneys here in the Bitterroot Valley will get a filer for attorneys in their mail boxes and the accountants will get fliers for accountants. I'll specifically focus on particular businesses and build the business that way.

Contact Information:

Michael Fletcher
Bigsky Inkjet
127 W. Main, Suite 111
Hamilton, MT 59840
(406) 375-9331

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"I'm Going to Keep It!"

By Nancy Maxson,
The University of Montana Rural Institute

Paula Terry receives employment services through Milk River, Inc., a developmental disabilities service provider in Glasgow, Montana. Her employment specialist from Milk River contacted the Glasgow Job Service/Workforce Center about funding her employment goals. Julie Hallock, the Montana Job Partnerships' Montana Choice: Customized Employment project coordinator at the Glasgow Workforce Center helped Paula apply for and receive $1,800 in Choice funds.

Paula's initial employment goal was to work in child care. The Choice project paid for her to enroll in a babysitting course at a local hospital.

After Paula finished her course, while she was looking for child care work, the local McDonald's restaurant contacted Mike River and expressed an interest in hiring two dishwashers. Paula applied for the job and got it. "This is the first time I ever worked," she says. "I love it." She works 2-4 shifts a week from 8:00 to 11:00 pm. "I pick up the dishes and wash them and everything. The guys bring them into the kitchen and I wash them."

One of the reasons she likes her job is because it means she doesn't have to spend as much time at the Mike River day activity center. "I just like to get out of here, just to get out of the Center, stuff like that. "

When Paula switched employment goals from child care to working at McDonalds, she was able to use her Choice funding to pay for the new goal. Choice covered her wages during her on-the-job training period, bought her a uniform, backpack, good work shoes, and even paid for her bus pass so she could get to and from work.

"I like it," says Paula when asked about her new job. "I'm going to keep it." When she got her pay check, Paula told Julie she was "SOOOOO happy to be working!"

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Still Choosing

By Nancy Maxson,
The University of Montana Rural Institute

The Montana Choice: Customized Employment project is just that: customized. The program managers work with each individual enrolled in the program to help that person discover what he/she wants to do and then locates the resources to make that happen. Sometimes that means a person will explore several employment ideas before choosing one. Sheila Robins of Butte is just such a person.

Sheila had been working with a Vocational Specialist at the mental health center. "We had been thinking about selling different craft products on the internet for people through the mental health center. And also possibly having a one-stop agency for temporary help," explains Sheila.

Sheila worked with Frank Odasz of the Lone Eagle Consulting, the internet business and telework consultant on the Montana Choice project, to explore marketing crafts via the internet. She enrolled in Odasz's on-line course for this.

At the same time, Sheila enrolled in on-line courses to learn bookkeeping software programs. She is also exploring accounting courses at the local College of Technology. The Montana Choice project has helped her with about $1,700 for computer equipment and courses while she explores these employment ideas.

"A lot of people on disability [Social Security Disability Insurance] are afraid to work full time, plus they can't," says Sheila. "But they are interested in picking up a little extra money. There is no place for them where they feel safe to go to work." When she talks to other people with disabilities, "I tell them really think thorough what they like to do and look around to see what is available. . .to match what their likes are to what the niche may be. "

'On the Road Again'

By Nancy Maxson,
The University of Montana Rural Institute

"It has always been my dream to travel and haul," says John Vermulm of Cutbank, Montana. "But with my health background, I have to go with my limits, and I know my limits." Now he transports cars for dealerships and picks up cars that are broken down on the side of the road. "I try my best to be out there and help people out that are stranded on the side of the road. "

John first took his small business dream to his local Montana Vocational Rehabilitation Office. "I went through Voc Rehab and I got the trailer." With Vocational Rehabilitation's investment in hand, John next turned to help from the Rocky Mountain Front Workforce Center. The Workforce Center is the local administrator of the Montana/Wyoming Careers through Partnerships and the Montana Choice: Customized Employment projects. The Partnerships project invested $1,500 in John's business and Montana Choice added another $3,800. "Through these programs here... I had work done to my pickup so it would be up to par to travel. I've gotten tools and everything I need for the trailer: a winch and tie downs." Additionally the programs paid for his cargo insurance. "That was pretty pricey. That was what blew my mind was the price of insurance. You know your cargo insurance is what hits you. But they've helped me out on that."

What John liked about working with the Workforce Center staff was the speed with which they responded to his needs and requests. "I mean they were fast on it. They didn't say 'ok fill this paper out.'" He thinks that the quick response is the key to the success of the programs and the people who use them. "To be honest with you, the better the response time, the better the chance the person has to get their business going. Cause some people can't sit there and wait months, months, months waiting for the state programs to decide if they should qualify." He says "the faster it is, the better it is for the people trying to get their business going, cause that is what they are trying to do is better their life right away instead of just scraping and saying 'well how am I going to make it this month?'"

John's advice to other small business owners with disabilities is, "don't give up. The business I started here, transporting vehicles, you might have one month not doing anything. People don't have a tree out back growing money. Be patient. Nothing just falls right straight in. You're going to have some obstacles. Just sit back and take it step by step. That's the best way to do it."

Vermulm Hauling was John's dream for years. "I didn't think I could ever have something like this go. The state has helped me out just amazingly. I'm in shock that things could happen like that. I didn't know there was stuff like out there for me. I've been disabled for quite a few years, and I just kind of said I'm retired, but in the back of my head I wanted to fulfill my dream somehow. Finally I said, I'll just check in to it."

Vermulm Hauling
451 Highway 213 North
Cutbank, MT 59427
(406) 873-8637

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Comments from the Program Managers

Editor's Note: The Montana Choice: Customized Employment and Montana/Wyoming Careers through Partnerships projects have worked with local Program Managers in four Workforce Centers across Montana. Below are Comments about these two projects from Program Managers in three communities.

Bob Nichols

Bob Nichols is an Employment Specialist with Ravalli Services in Hamilton, Montana. Ravalli Services has been working in conjunction with Bitterroot Workforce Center on Montana Choice and Montana/Wyoming Careers projects since 1999. Nichols likes that fact that there are "really great benefits for the people we're working with - to be able to assist them pursuing their employment objectives."

One major trend he has noticed is people pursuing self employment. He has had some people pursue conventional employment, "but over 60% pursue self employment and the grants have really made it possible for people to buy equipment, training, maybe get some help with car repair so they were able to put together the different pieces of the puzzle to put together the business." He has seen people start a wide range of businesses - a lot of wood work, carpentry, people working out of their homes or out of small studios or shops. "Lots of artisans, producing everything from painting to sculpture. Another person is making natural herbal insect and flee repellent for people and pets."

Many people in the Bitterroot area are looking to a new technology for work or for their businesses. One gentleman is pursing ink jet refilling and remanufacturing cartridges. Nichols has helped a web page designer and over 50% of the people Nichols has helped have included technology in their employment goals: buying computers or getting training from a local computer training center. This use of technology "has merged nicely with the training [Choice training consultant] Frank Odasz is providing ecommerce and telework. We had over 100 people attend Frank's initial training and take his telemarketing course."

A second trend Nichols has noticed is, all the agencies working together. The Workforce Center and various social service groups have worked closely together to help people meet employment objectives. "The Mental Health Center case managers are there, working closely with Vocational Rehabilitation, the schools and parents who are using the grants. Such a large number of agencies now working together to help people navigate the various referral systems that we find. This has been an added benefit of the grants. The inter - user of the monies has lead to other agencies looking at other resources they might be able to access for our clients."

One barrier Nichols has identified among a large number of people is, "they need help with understanding the regulations of Social Security. People do need their benefits. They've worked hard and they rely on their benefits as a safety net. They do want to work . We need to build better bridges between their case managers and Social Security so they have an open channel and understand the regulations that are involved when people pursue employment."

Dave Coleman

Dave Coleman, the Program Manager at the Southwest Montana Workforce Center in Butte, retired from the Navy after 20 years active duty, returned to college, and started working for the Department of Labor in 1999. He has been working with people with disabilities for three years.

The Southwest Montana Workforce Center serves a ten - county area, just shy of the combined area of Delaware, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. "I get a lot of windshield time helping people with disabilities in my region," says Coleman. "The Wonderful thing I've seen with Careers and Choice is the huge difference it makes in the lives of its participants." Coleman recently returned from a trip to Helena where he met with two clients of Vocational Rehabilitation. Both were frustrated with how long the process was taking. One woman wanted to do a green house and needed help with certain things like a small boiler and venting and exhaust fans and intakes. "After meeting with her and verifying her eligibility, I said we can take care of this and we had these items purchased for her the next week. She couldn't believe the turn around time. It was just phenomenal."

Another woman simply needed snow tires and some business cards, "and had been up against a brick wall trying to get these done. I told her to place her order and start shopping for tires. She couldn't believe how fast it was."

When Coleman met with a client who wanted to start her own business - Tough Country Treasurers in Helena - she need help with "money for rent, utilities,new paint for the place, new carpet. Three days after I met with her, she and I and her handy man drove all over Helena and we bought everything she needed. She is now open for business. Her head is still spinning about how fast this whole thing went for her. It's amazing what this program is able to do for people."

Coleman likes the Customized Employment strategies used by the program managers in the Choice project. Each person is an individual case. Everyone has a unique situation. No two are alike, "and I approach them that way. I just ask a person what they want to do."

One of Coleman's success stories is a gentleman who was a veterinarian, who became a cop, got injured and decided to become a private investigator. "When he came to see me about six months ago he couldn't even look me in the eye." Now he has a spring in his step. He has his self confidence back. He is open for business. He has a Private Investigator license and is on the internet. "We are planning a mass media blitz for his grand opening. The transformation in people's lives is truly remarkable. It is really a humbling experience to be a Program Manager for this program.

One of the barriers Coleman still sees regarding employment of people with disabilities is, "we are still wrestling with an antiquated paradigm with employers. They think that they have to remodel their work centers, and buy thousands and thousands of dollars worth of special equipment. They just don't even want to deal with a person with a disability."

"What I've had to do is get them to focus on a person's ability. When you say people with disabilities to them, and I've actually had several employers say this to me, they think of a person who is a quadriplegic in a wheel chair and for them, that is not a person they would have in their work center and someone who can help them reach their bottom line." When Coleman shares statistics with them that people with disabilities are a growing demographic, they are dubious. "They don't want to think of that, even when they have a disability. I think this will be the one constant we are going to have a hard time wresting with."

Others see people with disabilities as people who have quit trying. "And from my personal experience, I really get incensed at people who say disparaging things about people with disabilities. I'm a disabled Vet myself. People who say those things are ignorant and they really don't know what they are talking about. I think these are some of the old fashioned ways of thinking about people with disabilities and those really are the biggest hurdles we have."

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Richard Clautu

Richard Clautu works at the Bitterroot Job Service and the Workforce Center on the Choice and Partnership projects. His favorite success story from the projects is of Dan Miller, a top of the line cabinet maker. Dan is a forth-generation cabinet maker, who fell off a scaffolding and hit a pile of rocks. Dan weighed 300 pounds at the time and the fall did a lot of internal damage; the doctors said he would never walk again. As part of the healing process he had Gastric bypass surgery to reduce his weight. "In several years he went from a wheel chair and 300 pounds to under 200 pounds and walking." He almost lost his house and other properties due to medical expenses. He tried seeking help for quiet a while to try a get his business going and be able to work for himself. "Finally he wrote to Governor Judy Martz and received a reply referring him to Montana Choice program, specifically Bob Nichols and myself. We met with Dan and he told us what he needed."

"Bob and I discussed it and we came to the agreement that this was a viable endeavor and agreed to help him out. So we scheduled an appointment to get a list of all the equipment he would need and what it would cost, and then the projects purchased the equipment he needed. Dan is the kind of person with a lot of self - motivation, a go-getter, a doer." While waiting for the equipment he needed, he searched out jobs. "Before he had the equipment he needed he had a contract" with a store in the Mall in Missoula to build counters, "so when I went to visit him he already had the process started. He is not the kind of guy who is laid back and will wait for things to happen for him."

When we got him the equipment, he worked at it full force. He made the cabinets for the store in Missoula and he put on a show at the Craft workers fair that takes place once a year. "He had some really fine cabinets there and got a lot of inquiries about his cabinets and he is doing very well." Dan is very please at the speed of the Montana Choice program and they way it responded to his needs. "He had run into brick walls before and that had gone on for a couple of years."

" Dan Miller's success is really important to me because I see a man who was in need and who was at his wits end and had no place to turn. He found Montana Choice, found a program that could help him and to go from almost having nothing, from living on SSDI [Social Security Disability Insurance], to being able to have your own business to increase his income, to provide a better living for his family, and not be dependent on the system for support. This is what I think the majority of people on disability are shooting for. They don't want to depend on the system. They want to get out and work. They want to become contributing members of society. This program is ideal for people like Dan, who can go out and become self employed. Becoming a contributing member of society and having a feeling of self worth and saying 'I've done this.'"

Ron Rides at the Door

Ron Rides at the Door is with the Montana Choice Program Manager at the Rocky Mountain Workforce Center. He was born and raised in Browning MT. "Glacier National Park is my backyard playground." He grew up on the family farm and ranch, went into the service after high school, and returned to Montana to earn two degrees in Agricultural Business and Economics from Montana State University in 1998. In December 2003, he started working with the Montana Choice project. "The program's intentions were a perfect fit for the way I conduct myself, my daily life: with sincere passion and commitment. Being able to focus on people with a disability with sincerity and passion and give them that assistance and provide services direly needed."

Now just shy of a full year into the program, Rides at the Door sees the hard work and efforts of everyone involved in the program paying off. "We've been able to overcome a lot of challenges other programs may have had." The number one highlight of the program is its success working with individuals, "sitting down finding out what individuals want to do, not what the program wants them to do. Take it from that perspective and mold that job or that training or that self - employment avenue around that individual's disability," and ensuring it works on a day to day basis "so it helps that individual achieve their goals and dreams, just like the rest of us."

A second highlight of the Montana Choice project has been the "networking and the partnerships that are direly needed to bridge the gap in financing these small entrepreneurs and training expenses," for example, networking with Vocational Rehabilitation. "Say we have a client who needs $9,500 to establish his/her business. The funds we have available per person fall short of that $9,500. By networking with Vocational Rehabilitation or some other programs we are able to accomplish that mission, able to fully capitalize that operation and they have a better chance to succeed as a brand new business" because they don't have debt load or repayment burden. That has been a huge plus. "They can get what they need. Montana Choice is definitely on a solid, positive direction doing a lot of great things over the next four years."

Rides at the Door is excited to be a part of this. "I see a lot of positive changes happening from clients' perspectives and from the programs' and agencies' perspectives. This thing is working out. We are actually seeing some successes." He sees opportunities, in Montana 17.8% of the work force has a working disability. "Even if we help 10% of those people get gainfully employed, or employ others, we are providing a positive economic impact for the state of Montana and the Northwest region."

Ultimately, good and bad always runs together, and "we still have a few things to overcome. There are a lot of gray areas still. Social Security regulations, for example. Social Security is a huge animal" as far as the regulations are concerned and a lot of the clients don't know their rights. "If they do this, how will it affect their benefits? There are a lot of concerns with the Social Security aspect."

This year the project provided the Program Managers training and resources. "We're just being able to work through the logistics, to build bridges faster with some of the other agencies out there: maybe getting Vocational Resources to process the people faster, or maybe serve a few more above their initial quota, building bridges with other services, and being cost effective and time effective."

"The direction that has been set is just a powerful, very positive direction. I am please and honored" to be part of it because the benefits are for the people who honestly need it, "not administrative or political benefit, but the individuals on a grass roots level will benefit from it." Rides at the Door hopes he can continue to work to help improve this service, "so it is a top notch service so people, when people walk through the process they have a smooth process, an uplifting process. So when people look back at us in the community and they can say 'hey those people really did help us.' And I was able to accomplish my goals. And if more people can accomplish their goals, then we can all accomplish our goals together. "

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