Making life 'work out great for Graham'

Enlarge Image

Graham Holloway (right) with Oly Backstrom, president and CEO of SCE LifeWorks and Keri Renouf, IGA store manager. '(Holloway) is one of those guys who, when you call, he will always come in... He just loves to come to work,' says Renouf. (WAYNE GLOWACKI/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS ) Photo Store

How you can help

Send a cheque for a tax-deductible donation to SCE Lifeworks at:

SCE Lifeworks

227-530 Century St.

Winnipeg, MB

R3H 0Y4

 

Or you can attend or send a silent-auction prize for:

13th annual Golden Plate Gala

Oct. 12, reception at 6 p.m., dinner 7 p.m.

Fort Garry Hotel, Crystal Ballroom

Entertainment by the Grant Jones Trio, featuring Walle Larson.

$125 per ticket

For tickets, call Heather at 204-775-9402, or email her at hmonette@lifeworks.mb.ca .

Graham Holloway was working as a courtesy clerk at an IGA in Winnipeg when he saw a posting for a job in the grocery store stocking shelves and unloading trucks.

Holloway, who has developmental disabilities, wanted to apply for the position, but he needed assistance to get the skills required to get the job.

Thanks to SCE LifeWorks, a charitable non-profit organization devoted to helping inclusion in the workplace for people with intellectual disabilities, Holloway has now been stocking shelves and loading trucks at the store for 12 years.

"I like it here," said Holloway, 29. "I stock shelves -- soup, pop and chips. Anytime I can, I work here."

Keri Renouf, the grocery store's manager, said Holloway is a wonderful employee.

"He's one of those guys who, when you call, he will always come in. He very rarely calls in sick," Renouf said.

"He just loves to come to work -- which is really nice. And he loves working with the other grocery guys in the back. There is camaraderie. He's just another person here."

SCE LifeWorks is celebrating its 25th year of helping people like Holloway.

Oly Backstrom, president and CEO of SCE LifeWorks, said the idea for the organization came about when several parents of senior students with disabilities in St. James realized there wasn't much ahead for their now-adult children.

After meeting with each other and with the provincial government for about two years, the parents developed Sturgeon Creek Enterprises in 1987. The name was changed to SCE LifeWorks about 13 years ago because it had become a service available citywide.

"The original vision was just to develop a workshop with a broader mandate than what was out there at the time," Backstrom said.

"But then they did some research into how people were being supported in the community instead of in a production facility. And they were also told about newer best practices coming out in the United States.

"By 1987, they were firmly committed to providing solely community-based, person-centred services."

SCE LifeWorks currently helps 192 adults, with 70 of them working and 70 getting work experience or services geared for their retirement. Another 45 receive individualized support while seven are in Project SEARCH, a program where students in their final year of high school can get work experience at Manitoba Hydro and the provincial government.

It is primarily funded by the province through the individuals who are part of the program, but also through donations and fundraising.

"We call ourselves a supported employment agency, but our mandate is wider than that," Backstrom said.

"Our vision is to support the continuum of support by supporting people who are independent and just need a leg up with job support, supporting some whose needs are one-to-one support, and everywhere in between."

Ann Zebrowski, one of nine founding parents, said their children with special needs were among the first generation to live at home and go to school right to the end of high school.

"As they got older, there were a number of sheltered workshops in the city, but many of the kids didn't qualify for them," Zebrowski said.

"We, as parents, came together to find programs for the kids who didn't meet the criteria of the organizations, the ones with significant medical and intellectual (issues). They really needed an individualized approach -- really, what the schools had done for years -- but there was nothing in the community."

Zebrowski is pleased to see how far the organization has come in 25 years.

"They have done very well," she said. "I am pleased to see the organization is still in existence and looking for ways to do things even better.

"I think we changed the landscape. And I think families are glad to be involved in the planning of the services."

Graham's mother, Linda, said seeing her son working in the community and making friends is what she dreamed of when he was younger.

"A manager had seen some strengths in him, but he needed some training," she said, noting that SCE LifeWorks has not only trained her son for the grocery-store position, but also how to use a power lift for moving pallets.

"LifeWorks has the right people to do the right training. They have wonderful people.

"They have made it work out great for Graham."

Holloway says he has made "good friends" working at the store.

"We sing. We all sing. We sing while stocking.

"I love working."

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 29, 2012 A29