NapervilleWorks Finds Jobs for Youths with Different Abilities

Business owners and managers Margie Sillery and Kathe Foxen want to grab your attention.

The women, co-coordinators for NapervilleWorks, have a pool of hard working, dedicated employees they want to see employed. Sillery and Foxen are tasked to reach out to local employers to find positions for young adults with developmental disabilities, which is NapervilleWorks’ goal.

As they seek to find employment for area youths, they are also working to dispel miconceptions businesses and managers may have about hiring the disabled.

Once students with special needs transition out of the educational system into the real world, just as with any student, they want ways to fill their days with a variety of activities, which includes earning a living and becoming a productive part of the community, Sillery and Foxen said.

“Our goal is to create job opportunities for the students,” Sillery said. “And to make it known the contributions they can make in the community.”

NapervilleWorks is a grassroots organization founded in 2007. The organization is comprised of parents, business professionals and vocational coordinators from both and . They work to find jobs for the students before their transitional period comes to a close.

Foxen said the youths they are trying to place have an inherent work ethic because they have had to work harder than the average student for anything they wanted to do or achieve. They are also more likely to remain in a job for a longer period of time.

The pair networks with parents of students with disabilities, civic and religious organization and businesses in the community, working to create and find job opportunities. Roughly 40 employers work with the group but the number of young people seeking jobs is larger than the positions available.

“About 10 percent of students have employment once they leave transition,” Sillery said. Those youths that are hired typically work between five and 15 hours a week.

As Foxen and Sillery meet with businesses, the women said they are also spreading awareness and debunking myths about hiring youths with disabilities.

“We have had a population of individuals who have been educated—well educated—and we want to expand the options available to them into employment," Sillery said.

Foxen agreed.

“With 19 years in the school system, do we really want to put them through school to have them sit at home?” Foxen asked.

Although attitudes are changing, there continues to be a misperception that if an employer hires a person with a disability it will increase the workload for others or make it more difficult to get work done, they said.

Foxen offered the example of Randy Lewis, senior vice president of distribution and logistics at Deerfield-based Walgreens. Lewis, whose son has autism, implemented a program at a distribution center in South Carolina where a large percentage of the employees have some sort of disability, yet production is expected to maintain standards. 

Research has shown that disabled employees meet or exceed the performance levels of their co-workers without disabilities, according to the Office of Disability Employment Policy.

“With businesses the challenge is to get them to think outside the box about jobs,” Foxen said. “Also, it can be a cost-saving measure and take some work load off the plate of a full-time employee.”

For example, often employers have a specific job description for a position. NapervilleWorks tries to help employers see how they might carve out an opportunity for a disabled worker. In an office environment that might mean hiring a part-time worker to make copies or shred documents, which frees up time for a full-time employee who might normally do that work, the women said.

Youths have been placed in a variety of work environments from restaurants to retail, from office worker to landscaping.

Some of the employers that have partnered with NapervilleWorks include Starbucks, ., , College of DuPage,  and Aramark at .

Although jobs in grocery stores are great opportunities for youths, Foxen and Sillery want to get employers out of the “bagging” mindset.

The pair would like to see more interest from white-collar employers, particularly those located along the Interstate 88 corridor. And they’d like to connect with some of the larger employers in the community, including the city of Naperville.

“In our community we have so many cultures and that includes those with disabilities,” Foxen said.

The pair wants potential employers to connect with them so they can address fears and help them understand the benefits of hiring one of the youths.

Sillery said that in the special needs community the youths aren’t viewed as disabled, rather that they have abilities.

“Everybody has a purpose on this Earth,” she said.

Employers who are interested in partnering with NapervilleWorks should contact the organization at napervilleworks@gmail.com, 630-291-4955, visit the website at napervilleworks.webs.comor look for them on Facebook at NapervilleWorks.