Willow Glen Resident

Community

Project Hired helps find employment for workers with range of disabilities

By Mary Gottschalk

Looking for a job is seldom easy, as any unemployed person will tell you.

If you have a disability, it's another obstacle, and finding a job can seem impossible.

Colette Krinock knows.

"I was looking for a job for 2 ¹/2 years, day in and day out," says the Newhall Neighborhood resident. "It was very discouraging.

"I put my résumé on Monster.com. I'd look for usually four hours a day on my computer and anything I thought I could do, I'd put a résumé in. I'd get a stupid automated reply saying, 'We'll give you a call if you meet our standards.' "

In September 2006, Krinock's sister suggested she go to Project Hired, the 30-year-old nonprofit group that assists individuals with disabilities throughout Silicon Valley in finding employment or advancing their careers.

By January 2007, Krinock was working as the administrative assistant office manager for a hearing aid company in Cupertino.

She loved the job, but management changes resulted in a layoff, so Krinock returned to Project Hired.

Now she is employed by a tutoring service, working four evenings a week with special needs children. In January, she started taking classes at San Jose State University to complete her master's degree in speech pathology, a dream she postponed when her husband Jerry accepted a Silicon Valley job in 1986.

Instead of finishing her degree, she volunteered at the schools her two children attended and eventually went to work managing a medical office.

Krinock credits Project Hired with not only helping her find work, but with helping her realize it was time to stop talking about going back to school and actually do it.

Monica Makela, program director of client services at Project Hired, says the program is divided into three service areas.

One is Hired Teams, which contracts with the Veterans Administration and others to operate call centers.

One is the Hired Temps program, which operates much like any other temporary work agency, putting clients into temporary jobs.

"This is the easiest way for companies to get involved with Project Hired with very little liability on their end," Makela says. "We incur all the business costs, like workers comp."

She points out that while all clients have a disability, in the Hired Temps program the clients "must be able to transition into a competitive work environment pretty seamlessly. It's usually for mid- to high-level types of positions such as customer service, technical project manager, human resources and administration services."

The third program is Hired Direct, where, she says, "We focus on long-term, benefited employment for individuals who have disabilities.

"We also help individuals advance their careers. If they come to us and are underemployed, we have services to help them get a better job."

Disability is a term that covers a wide range of limitations.

"It can be mental health, a chronic illness like MS, lupus, HIV, ALS or someone with severe physical limitations," Makela says. "We also serve the deaf and hard-of-hearing and those with learning limitations, dyslexia, ADD or ADD/ADHD."

In Krinock's case, she and her twin sister were born two months prematurely. She says that while they were in incubators, they were given too much oxygen, which "damaged the motor strip in our brain, so by the age of 2, we were diagnosed with mild cerebral palsy."

Makela says because Project Hired is partially funded by federal grants, it requires all applicants to submit medical documentation supporting their disability.

Once clients are screened, Makela says Project Hired does assessments and then asks them to come to workshops and job clubs.

"We're pretty hands-on," Makela says. "We have mock interviews, training and workshops.

"Clients can come in and use our resource center to access the Internet, check job boards and listings. We hold biweekly focus groups on things like salary negotiations or how to deal with large gaps in employment.

"For our deaf and hard-of-hearing clients, we have a video phone, TTY, a fax and computers."

Additionally, Project Hired has a large number of qualified volunteers who work as job search consultants and are available to work with clients on a one-to-one basis providing job search support.

Krinock sums it up saying, "They give you what you need to succeed."

Open house

Project Hired serves individuals and companies throughout Silicon Valley. In 2007 its placement and career counseling programs served more than 538 people. Some 220 clients were hired into direct or temporary employment.

The nonprofit agency is holding an open house for the public from 4 to 7 p.m. March 13 in its new, larger quarters at 1401 Parkmoor Ave., Suite 125, in San Jose, between the Rose Garden and Willow Glen areas. For additional information, visit www. projecthired.org or call 408.557.0880.