HCE Newsletters:

February 2010

PNC Bank Awards HCE $5,000 Grant

This month HCE received a $5,000 grant from PNC Bank.  Grace Corpus, a PNC Community Consultant and Luis Diaz, a former HCE employee, now a PNC Branch Manager, presented the check. This is HCE’s first grant from PNC Bank and will hopefully initiate a long relationship with the Bank as HCE goes forward.

Let’s Celebrate Success

We need to continuously focus on the mission of HCE- to create employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. In these very difficult times this focus is more important than ever as we navigate these uncertain times. This month we recognize:

T is a forty-three year old single male who resides in Jersey City.  He is diagnosed with neurofibromatosis with right upper extremity deformity and deficits. He attended grammar and high school in regular classes, but only completed up to the ninth grade.  When he began receiving services at Hudson Community Enterprises, he had no source of income.  He began working with the HCE’s Litter Patrol program.  He eventually began working part time at Wendy’s, two days a week.  When the Hudson community Enterprises secured a contact to clean a Hudson County facility, he also began to work in that setting where he receives $10.50 per hour with full medical benefits.  Within a year he was able to save enough money that he was able to take his daughter on vacation to Disney World… his first vacation ever!

J is a forty-six year old, single, African-American female. She was referred to HCE because of an accident she was in during the early 1990s that caused her to become disabled.  She suffered a fractured pelvis along with several other fractures in her pubic bones.  Through all of the pain, she was able to recover with the help of physical therapy. She has a GED and some training, but for many years was unable to secure full time employment because of her disability issues. She was referred to HCE for an initial vocational assessment to find out an area of employment to pursue. She proved to be one of the most enthusiastic and supportive members.  She always ensured that she was one of the first to arrive, which was quite the feat, considering the lengths she had to take to get to the program.  J had to travel by train and two buses to get in each morning, sometimes traveling up to two hours just one way.  One would think this would deter someone from coming in each day, but not J. She always arrived before the scheduled start time with a smile on her face.  She was and still continues to be a great support for her peers.  Whether it was through the many examinations given during the evaluation phase, or the start of learning the new processes of Document Preparation, Scanning, and Indexing, she always made sure that everyone around her was motivated and ready for whatever was thrown their way.

It appeared that J would not let anything or anyone prevent her from reaching her goal.  She had some family issues occur early on into her time with the program, but she just took it all with stride.  She stated that her motivation was finally to better herself and she was not going to let anyone stop her.  Even when physically she was in a lot of pain, she fought to make it, and rarely missed any days in the process.  Her enthusiasm and eagerness to not only better herself, but also her peers around her, is a testament to others like her suffering from disabilities.  She has shown, through example, that they should not let it define them. J has in turn become one of Metro Scanning’s top producers working within the Scanning Department surpassing her peers who have been there for much longer than she has.

HCE’s Transition Students Meet Some Special Police Canines

Today, police forces in most major cities use police dogs to track criminals, sniff out illegal materials, search buildings, and do other jobs human police officers can't do as well as a dog can. This month the students in our Transition program met two of these special dogs. Two police officers and their dogs paid us a visit. As part of the presentation the dogs demonstrated their special skills and found materials that were hidden in a box in the basement. The students were very interested and asked many questions.

Hudson Community Enterprises Implements a New Approach to its Extended Employment Program

Programs are people and over the years HCE’s Extended Employment Program has grown. The people who are in this program are different. They are not the same people who were in the program in 1971 when the program was first funded.

With that in mind, staff at Hudson Community Enterprises recently launched a Blue Ribbon Task Force to really look at this program and have developed a new proactive program that is intended to benefit all of its participants. The re-structured program will incorporate five components that will be presented using a workshop model. In terms of the new design changes have been made in allocation of current staffing as well as daily scheduling that is now being designed to accommodate these workshops.

HCE staff celebrated this initiative at a staff luncheon held on February 5^th at the Casino in the Park. 

Let’s Cheer for our Hudson Plaza Cleaning Crew

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow stops the US Mail and this month’s epic snowfall did not stop our crew who clean Hudson Plaza. Despite the weather the crew did not skip a beat. Each night despite the elements they showed up ready willing and able to work!