9 minute read
January Spotlight
from January Chamber News
Spotlight: RT Industries
Our Spotlight for January is RT Industries Started in 1974 as a 501(C)(3) organization, with the purpose of promoting the welfare and needs of adults with disabilities, under the jurisdiction of the Miami County Board of Developmental Disabilities, primarily known as Riverside With the support of Riverside, RT Industries grew and started privatizing in 2014 and concluded this transition in 2018 You can learn more about this organization and all they do in this interview with RT Industries’ CEO Ashley Brocious
Q: RT Industries was first founded in 1974, and then privatized in 2018; what was your mission when you first began? And how does that compare to your mission now?
A: The history of the organization is extremely important to me because we have come so far from our workshop days When we first began, the focus was strictly on employment and services for people with developmental disabilities in Miami County When we privatized, we moved services beyond Miami County, with more services offered to people with physical disabilities and veterans as well Furthermore, we disseminated the sheltered workshop in 2017, and now all services for employment are now solely based in the community. We also rebranded our logo: it used to have Industries underneath, and now it says “Explore, Empower, Engage”
Q: How many employees/volunteers does RT Industries have?
A: We currently do not have any volunteers, but we do have 100 employees. There are approximately twenty-three employees on our roster that receive training and experience through our employment services program with the Department of Developmental Disabilities, Group Employment Support (GES). This service means services and training activities provided in regular business, industry, and community settings for groups of two or more workers with disabilities. It is a service that is on the path to prepare the person for employment in the community. While persons served are working on site at the employer business, they are getting paid and receiving experience that will help support them for their future jobs, similar to a paid internship.
Q: What challenges has RT Industries had to face and overcome?
A: Primarily, community perception. It’s hard; when you see this building, it looks like manufacturing because it was designed for our sheltered workshop in 1988. Because of this, we’ve spent a lot of time making sure that we give the community the impression that we are no longer a sheltered workshop. A second challenge is the perception of our funding. When we privatized in 2018, people assumed that we no longer received levy dollar, or we solely relied on it. Neither of these is the case; every provider gets the same 60/40 match. For every dollar of services, 60% comes from the state, and 40% comes from local levy funding. This holds true for every provider in Miami County.
This year I testified twice in the State House in front of State Representatives to get more funding for services. We haven’t had an increase in funding in the last 15 years, and due to this it has been difficult to retain and hire employees. On average, 46.2% of applicants have declined our employment offers due to our low wages and much less responsibility in other career paths. We have lost experienced DSPs at a rapid rate of 51.6% because they need a wage that adequately supported the needs of their families. These employees did not want to leave our business but were forced to make tough decisions to walk away from the work they are passionate about. However, because providers, families and people receiving services were able to testify, we have been able to get a 38% increase in funding starting 1/1/24. With this new increase it will greatly help with employing new people and retaining them.
Q: What are RT Industries’ long-term goals?
A: Focus further on employment and community integration.
Q: What has been something that has been most rewarding for you while at RT Industries?
A: Seeing people we serve thrive as we transitioned away from being a sheltered workshop. A major impact in our decision was related to the controversy around the 14C certification, which is paying people under minimum wage; in our situation is was paying people at a piece rate. The main reason however, was that out of 120 people in the sheltered workshop, over 75% didn’t have interest in working in the community. Sheltered workshops were created as a stepping stone on the path to employment in the community, not for long term work. As we transitioned out of being a sheltered workshop, we got to see the amazing transformations of the people we serve come from it. People got to feel like they were a part of something and started appreciating coming in every single day. Parents were elated that their kids wanted to come home and talk about how exciting their day was. Please understand, there was a time and a place for our sheltered workshop, but we are in a different place than we were 20 years ago and even 10 years ago. It played an important part, but it was the time for growth and evolution. The happiness and smiles that come out of our programs now and the employment opportunities are so rewarding. People are getting out of the building and being part of the greater community.
Q: What elements of your work do you think makes you so unique and so vital to the Troy/Miami Valley community?
A: For us it’s the employment aspect, and getting people employed in the community. Our folks are amazing. They are loyal. We’ve even had someone employed at a business for over 26 years. They have dedication, the desire to work, and to work hard and efficiently. People with disabilities are no different than anyone else, they want the same things out of life; frankly they just want the same rights.
We also volunteer a lot in the community. We volunteer a lot with Troy Main Street, the Bethany Center and are currently working with Partners in Hope for stockings for senior citizens this Christmas. Our volunteering aspect is something unique, because we are the ones volunteering for others.
Q: Are there any needs that RT Industries has that you would like to see met by the community?
A: Give us a chance! Hiring someone with any type of disability is just like hiring someone without. We provide a Job Coach to aide the business and the person employed FREE to the employer throughout the hiring process through to employment. We would love to partner with more non-profits to volunteer AND businesses for employment opportunities in the community. We want to build more understanding and new relationships, but we need businesses to do this.
Q: What is something about RT Industries that you think people would be surprised to learn about?
A: I would like to reiterate to people that we are not a sheltered workshop. 😊
Furthermore, something I don’t think many know at all is that we actually have maintained a contract with ODOT since 1981 for 4 rest areas. At these 4 rest areas, we provide 3 shifts per day, 365 days a year where we maintain the cleaning, janitorial, and groundskeeping of the location (mowing, snow, etc.). The nearest location is the rest area Northbound and Southbound between Troy and Piqua on I75, and the others are located by Saint Marys, Eastbound and Westbound. These contracts require that 64.8% of the hours are to be worked by someone with a disability.
Also a fun fact, most don’t know that people can rent some of our spaces/services as well for parties, events or meetings.
Q: What is something new you are planning for RT and the space you mentioned?
A: If you didn’t know, our building was built for us. In 1987, the Archers donated this land to RT, and we had three major funders who helped build the space for our sheltered workshop, which was finished in 1988 when we moved from Riverside. There was also an addition in 1997. With that being said, we have remodeled the front of the building through local grants from the Piqua Foundation, Troy Foundation and Miami County Foundation, which helped remodel the room for our Adult Services. Now we need to focus on the back of the building. We are working on a Capital Campaign now, which would help us further focus on employment and a community aspect. For the left side, we would love to have more space for the community to come in and apply for jobs. We could have a monthly rotation of business (i.e., food month, retail month, etc.) to interview people. We would also like to make a training room not only for our services, but for the community to utilize as well. The right side would be additional adult day services.
RT will be celebrating our 50th anniversary this year! We plan to have a major celebration in November. Stay tuned for more information.
For more information about RT Industries, please visit our website at www.RTIndustries.org or follow us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RTIndustries
