Money & Career
SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA
Independence Center
Enables Persons with Disabilities & Honors the Businesses that Hire Them by Madelaine Brauner Landry
If you’re like most, you take your daily life for granted. Living, working, walking, hearing, seeing, feeling, socializing, leisure activities . . . it can be easy to forget that for persons with disabilities, simple life choices are often more limited. Yet an incapacitating accident or illness can happen at any moment to anyone. National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) was established in October 1945 by the U.S. Department of Labor to educate the American public about disability employment issues. The designation celebrates both the contributions of America’s workers with disabilities, as well as employers who embrace disability hiring policies. The NDEAM 2019 theme is “The Right Talent, Right Now.” The Southwest Louisiana Independence Center (SLIC) honors both the mission and theme of NDEAM. To that end, SLIC has recently embarked on an employer appreciation program, presenting Rouses Market in Moss Bluff with its first award. SLIC Executive Director Mitchell Granger hopes their efforts will help the community recognize the empowerment that comes with successful matches between employees and employers. “SLIC ‘consumers’ are given the ability to pursue employment of their own choice, knowing we have their back,” said Granger. “After their initial assessment, we work continuously to develop good employment options for persons with significant disabilities throughout our thirteen parishes in regions V and VI.” Rouses Store Director Chad Seales accepted the award for “seeing ability where others see disability.” When he hired produce worker Peter Courville in September 2018, he knew firsthand what it felt like to be marginalized for a disability. As a child, Seales was placed in Special Education classes due to his Attention Deficit Disorder. Today, he credits his own ‘disability’ with making him a better store manager. “ADD taught me to multi-task. I can walk around this store and see 10 things that need to be done. I depend on my employees to carry out the tasks I assign to them. Peter is great at staying on task.”
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Thrive Magazine for Better Living • October 2019
Rouse Market, Moss Bluff: Store Director Chad Seales; SLIC consumer and Rouse employee Peter Courville; and SLIC Executive Director Mitchell Granger)
“I let SLIC’s consumers walk the store,” Seales added. “I ask them, ‘Can you be happy; can you be energetic? Can you follow Rouses’ five simple rules? Can you help make us successful?’”