Helping Hand: Catholic Charities thrift store hires developmental supports client

Steve Vickers wanted a job so he went about it the only way he knew how: He asked for it.

The request paid off for the three-year volunteer at TurnStyles, a thrift store at 9750 W. 87^th St., Overland Park, operated by Catholic Charities Foundation of Northeast Kansas.

“One day he came and sat down in front of my desk and looked me eyeball-to-eyeball and said, ‘Doug, I want a job,’” Doug Clopton, store manager, said. “I thought, ‘Boy! There’s a guy that’s direct.’”

It was a straight forward request from a special person. Vickers has received services from Johnson County Developmental Supports for 25 years. The 47-year-old Olathe man has lived independently several years.

There was some concern at first in providing Vickers with a part-time job, Clopton said.

“We didn’t want to get involved with hours and benefits because we didn’t want to interrupt his benefit package with Johnson County Developmental Support, so we set him up at 25 hours a week and he works Monday through Friday,” Clopton said. “He’s been doing that now about a month and he’s been doing a remarkable job.”

Vickers basically is doing the same work that he did as a volunteer: helping to unload donations from cars, gathering the donations and taking them into the store’s sorting room. He also helps empty trash cans.

This is the first time TurnStyles has hired someone like Vickers, Clopton said.

“We’ve been in business about six years and it’s primarily volunteer focus,” he said. “We have three full-time people and just a couple part-time people, so to add a part-time person to a primarily volunteer-led activity was a pretty big step for Catholic Charities and then for TurnSyles because we’ve always prided ourselves that it’s volunteer driven.

“People might ask why are we hiring him? You see this guy and you think, ‘Why didn’t we do this three years ago?’ If we can’t help the people who are helping us, then maybe we’re going about things the wrong way.”

Clopton said the primary mission of an organization such as Goodwill is to recruit, hire and train people so they can qualify to go out into the marketplace and find jobs.

“For us, that wasn’t really a mission; that was kind of a fall out; a result of having the opportunity for Steve to learn some skills and at the same time to pick up a paycheck every week,” he said. “Catholic Charities in Northeast Kansas helps 85,000 people a year, and the way we look at this, we just added one more, making it 85,001.”

Although Vickers is a man of few words, it’s easy to tell he is proud of his job. He answers an enthusiastic “Yes” when asked if he likes it.

Vickers said he likes “tossing bags” and that it “feels good” coming to work each day. He also enjoys working with other people.

“They are nice,” he said, adding, “They like me.”

Clopton it was a matter of the right person being in the right place at the right time.

“He has energy and he had the motivation to seek out a job when there aren’t a lot of jobs out there,” he said. “But we had the opportunity and he had the interest and it was a perfect match for us.

“He’s telling everybody, ‘Yeah, I’ve got a job now working Monday through Friday.’ I mean, we made this guy’s life.”

Vickers’ hiring comes as Johnson County Developmental Supports gets ready to celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month in October. The agency, established in 1972, facilitates career and personal development for Johnson County residents with developmental disabilities. It serves more than 500 residents daily through a broad array of community-based programs and support mechanisms.

“For Americans with disabilities, employment is vital to independence, empowerment, and quality of life,” JCDS spokeswoman Holly Carrington said. “By observing National Disability Employment Awareness Month, we are able to highlight people with disabilities as a tremendous source of capable employees and it gives us all an opportunity to recognize the many contributions citizens with disabilities make to our community.”

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