Lynchburg Business

Stand Up, Inc.

Issue: August 2010 by Camille Smith in Business Profiles, Inside The Magazine

During the cold days of January 2010, the country faced an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent, an optimistic number for some who knew it was receding from the record high of 10 percent in December 2009. It was one of the coldest winters Lynchburg residents had ever faced, and optimism was not a shared sentiment, especially for those still unemployed. Tony, whose last name is withheld for privacy, was one such unemployed local who could not catch a break.

A self-proclaimed “rock” star familiar with the highs and now the lows of life, Tony found himself without a job, without a home and without family. That same January, Len Richardson took a position as a job coach employee specialist at Stand Up, Inc., an organization that helps individuals (referred to as “consumers”) with documented disabilities navigate the road to independence.

“When I came to work with Stand Up, Tony was one of the first people I met. It went something like, ‘Welcome Len, this is Tony,’” Richardson said. “He had just gone through a rough time, so we needed to find him a job and a place to live.”

Stand Up, Inc., is a transformation of Common Wealth Services, an organization that was created in 2001 and built upon the foundational belief that people with disabilities could do more, given the opportunity. Husband and wife team and owners of Stand Up, Inc., Kelly and Dan Reichard, III, now lead a team of dedicated individuals with expertise in special education and are equipped to help their consumers take that next step into the professional world.

“We really have a passion for this; it is a tough job, but we get fulfillment from it,” Kelly said. “To see someone who didn’t know that they could feel successful in the workplace get a job and receive a paycheck for the first time and know that they earned it on their own, it’s really a special thing.”

The goal of any of the services offered at Stand Up, Inc., which includes employment, housing and vocational training, is overall independence. A job coach assigned to each consumer walks through each step with him or her, with a heavy presence in the beginning of the process and a fading one towards the end.

Richardson says that from the day he met Tony in January, who was referred to Stand Up, Inc., by the Department of Rehabilitative Services (DRS), the team dove into the process of preparing him for the working world.

“Once our consumers go through the DRS and are approved for services, they sit down with their job coach and spend some time just getting to know each other,” Kelly said. “We find out about what their interests are and take the time to allow a relationship to form between them. From the information we gather, we explore some contacts in the community that would be a good vocational match.”

Because the job coach and the consumer enter into this process together, getting to know each other early on is essential.

“We want our consumers to be able to come forward if they have questions or concerns and say that there is a problem,” Dan said. “These people need to know and trust that their job coach is their friend and a support system.”

When any department, such as the DRS, refers a consumer to Stand Up, Inc., that department signs a contract for different services at different times. They may go through the job development coaching and training program on one contract and then through another contract, enter the independent living skills instructional program. This way, each step of the development process is contracted and financially covered by the referring department.

“There are financial requirements that have to be met, whether through Medicaid or other types of insurance, and they do have to have a documented disability, so about 99 percent of our business is referral,” Kelly said. “If you do not have a job, our services can be expensive, but to have a referral agency to cover that cost, the consumer has an advantage and a head start.”

It’s that precious head start that Dan and Kelly say can help change lives in Central Virginia and tackle the unemployment rate, keeping it on the downward plunge. Many are already a Stand Up, Inc., success story and are experiencing an independent life that they never thought they could achieve. Tony, for example, just received a stellar review for his first 90 days at Wal-Mart, where he has not only learned the importance of maintaining a steady job, but computer skills as well.

“When I first got my job at Wal-Mart, I had to pass 14 different computer tests to keep my job,” Tony said. “Len was there helping me. ‘Comforting’ is the word that comes to mind, knowing that he was there.”

Along the job coaching timeline, most employers set a specified amount of time for job-training. In an environment like Wal-Mart, about 20 minutes may be allotted for bagging or cart pushing, but Stand Up, Inc., consumers are often not up-to-speed after minimal training. That’s where job coaches come in with additional support so that employers do not lose productivity. Richardson now only visits Tony at Wal-Mart about once a month, down from his daily visits in the beginning.

“In the first few weeks of his job—the whole first month really—I was going to work with Tony almost every day. Mostly I helped with the computer work, but the training and anything else he was going through, I went through. Once he knew what to do on the job, he saw me less and less,” Richardson said. “Tony has a winning attitude. I knew he’d be great at this job because he has a great personality; they appreciate that about him over there.”

Most businesses in the Lynchburg area embrace the Stand Up, Inc., program and understand that establishing independence is a transitional process in which both the consumer’s and the employer’s integrity is of the utmost importance. Stand Up, Inc., takes the trust they have earned from their cooperating employers as seriously as they take their relationships with the consumers themselves.

“Our consumers are the heart of everything we do here,” Dan said. “We understand that gaining any measure of independence is a powerful thing, and we will do all we can to deliver that.”