AtWork!
September 2nd, 2010 | By: Fred Nystrom
A local computer recycling source and SO much more…
Computers ready to be recycled
What happens to young people who have a cognitive or physical disability once they complete their school years? This difficult question is answered right here in our community.
There have always been children who have a much more challenging course through life. They may have been born with cognitive or physical challenges, or injured in a way that makes life more difficult. For many generations, these children were kept away from the public or institutionalized. In recent years, as parents pushed to get their challenged children educated, even school districts fought court battles to deny them a public education. Now, for the most part, those battles are over and challenged children are entitled to a robust experience in school. But then what?
To answer that question, local parents began to organize more than 40 years ago to provide productive activities for their children with disabilities. Community Enterprises of Issaquah was formed in 1965; Custom Industries in Bellevue was founded in 1962. Both were private not-for-profit organizations, and each ran what was then referred to as a “sheltered workshop” providing employment and training to challenged workers in a segregated setting. These two organizations merged in 1998 to form AtWork!
While the name AtWork! sounds like a governmental organization, it is not. It is a private not-for-profit and its purpose is to help people with disabilities learn marketable skills, find and keep good jobs in the community, and earn wages and benefits that help them escape poverty.
The original concept of a sheltered workshop has been surpassed by the more holistic concept of customized employment. This concept involves bringing together a circle of support—including parents, friends, and the professional staff at AtWork!—to focus on what a disabled individual can do, and not what they can’t. They work to match those skills to the needs of an employer while also working with an employer to customize a job to match the skills of the individual.
AtWork! has developed several business where people with disabilities can develop their skills and then transition into private-sector employment. More than 70 individuals with disabilities who are supported by AtWork! are employed throughout King County at businesses such as QFC, Fred Meyer, and Costco.
The businesses powered by AtWork! are quite varied.
The AtWork! Recycling Center on Seventh Avenue in Issaquah is the area’s only 24/7 drop-off facility for recycling. It is partners with the City of Issaquah Resource Conservation Office, E-Cycle Washington, and the King County Solid Waste Division. The center takes cardboard and other paper products, as well as electronic recyclables such as computers, CPU towers, laptops, monitors, and televisions. It also recycles plastic, glass, and scrap metal.
The AtWork! landscaping service cares for commercial properties and is NISH certified for government contracts. The crews maintain the NOAA facility at Sand Point and the cemetery at Fort Lawton. They spend the months between April and November hand-raking stormwater detention ponds throughout King County.
AtWork! also runs a document-management service and a production and assembly shop that offers subassembly of small parts; packaging, including shrink-wrap and blister-pack capabilities; and bulk mailings.
None of this would be possible without the generous support of the City of Issaquah, which leases to AtWork! the buildings and land housing the offices, shops, and recycling center, and supports AtWork! programs with human-services funds.
For more information about AtWork! and its businesses, visit atworkwa.org or call 274.4000
