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Hands-on Help
Launches “Hands On Help”
Going from Client of the System to a Self-Employed Contractor
for the System
By Alex Heisse-Siegert,
Positive Solutions Benefits Resource Center
After acquiring her disability, Alice was
no longer able to do the physical work she had previously performed.
As she began to look at retraining for another vocation, she decided
to pursue a social work/human services type degree. With funding
from Washington State Department of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR),
Alice entered secondary education and found that her new vocational
direction was a match made in heaven with her natural skills and
interests. And since she had become a consumer of services herself,
and was entitled to public benefits, she had very real experience
negotiating systems that greatly enhanced her education and her
practical experience in the internships she served with Social Security
and the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
After she finished her degree, DVR referred Alice to Positive
Solutions and we knew immediately she would be an excellent candidate
for the RESEED (Rural Entrepreneurship and Self-employment
Expansion Design) grant we had just been awarded by University of Montana’s
Rural Institute. Alice was eager to become self-employed as an
independent living specialist, which would capitalize on her
interests, expertise, and the contacts she acquired during the
student internships she completed as part of her Social and Human
Services Bachelors degree. Marsha Katz from the Rural Institute
provided some of the hands-on help that assisted us to fully
develop Alice’s business idea, settle on a name for her
business, and find financing to launch the business.
Since Alice had never written a business plan, VR contracted
with a professional to give her hands-on assistance to put everything
on paper. While working on her business plan, Alice mentioned
that she didn’t yet have a name for her new venture, but
she knew that she wanted her business name to reflect the services
that she would provide, and the way she would provide them. So,
we started brainstorming based on the strong values Alice had
about her business. When the name “Hands on Help” was
suggested, Alice knew that was the name that exactly fit her
vision of her business. “Hands on Help let’s people
know that I will be there when help is needed,”said Alice, “whether
helping someone fill out forms or going with them to an appointment
as an advocate, I want my clients to know that I’ll be
there in person, not just giving information or suggestions over
the phone.” “Hands on Help” not only conveyed
her services but her commitment to fully partner with the person
she would be assisting.
When she set about determining her potential market, Alice realized
that a key customer would be the state DVR (Department of Vocational
Rehabilitation) system itself. Through her extensive prior volunteer
efforts with her own church and others, Alice knew that her services
were both needed and necessary by churches committed to providing
support services to their own congregations and to others in
need. Churches and other organizations had often approached her
with requests for her assistance, some which were even accompanied
by offers of payment. This made churches a natural secondary
market niche.
Business Funding
Marsha Katz and I worked with Alice to write a Social Security
Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS plan) to pay for some of
her business start-up expenses. Marsha let Alice know that repayment
of some of her student loan expenses could be included in the
PASS plan, because those expenses were directly related to her
achieving her vocational goal. Milestones we included in Alice’s
PASS to help her have the support she needed as she began her
business were to secure a mentoring relationship specific to
the duties of Independent Living Counselors already working in
the field who contract with the DVR; and to connect with a SCORE
volunteer for ongoing business mentorship on cash flow accounting,
tax preparations, and other necessary issues that face today’s
business owner. In order to have the PASS include the loan payments,
we wrote Alice’s PASS to begin retroactive to January of
2002, running until February of 2004, when all of the PASS expenses
would have been paid..
With the PASS plan covering her student loan payments, Alice
could now qualify for a start-up loan from a local credit union
to cover business costs not covered by either the PASS or DVR,
including wireless telephone services, a laptop computer, portable
printer, and business, auto and professional liability insurances.
After the PASS was written and submitted, we all had further
contact with the PASS Cadre staff who helped us fine tune Alice’s
PASS to comply with Social Security policy. Once we had dotted
all the i’s and crossed all the t’s, Alice’s
PASS was approved for $12,000 dollars. All tolled, Alice’s
business received approval for over $20,000 of funds and equipment.
This became her immediate owner’s equity in the business.
If it hadn’t been for all the hands-on help from the multiple
partners that were part of Alice’s team, there probably
would be no Hands on Help business ready to assist people to
negotiate the complex waters of local, state and federal services,
supports, resources and entitlements.
Since the time her business started, Alice has experienced huge
changes in her life, getting unexpectedly married, and moving
Hands on Help to a remote community on Washington’s Olympic
Peninsula..So, if you live there, or serve people who do, and
you find yourself in need of a guide through a sea of red tape,
or a caring someone with system know-how to assist you or your
family member, friend or client, don’t be surprised…just
be thankful, when that person’s name is Alice.
Contact Information
Alex Heisse-Siegert
Positive Solutions Benefits Resource Center
318 1st Ave. S., Sutie 300
Seattle, WA 98104
(208) 322-8181
Alex@psbrc.org
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