Meet Stacy

Meet Stacy

Through Advocates for Success (AFS), a local provider of services for people with developmental disabilities, Stacy is building independence in a fun and supportive work environment!

Before talking with Stacy, her Service and Support Administrator (SSA) Stephanie explained that group employment is “community employment in small groups (of people with developmental disabilities) with on-the-job supervisors for support if needed.” Stacy works on a cleaning crew and spends about 15 hours a week cleaning locally contracted businesses.

When asked about her experience in group employment Stacy happily shared that she “loves everything about it and loves the people [she] works with.” Both Stacy and Stephanie noted that group employment is teaching Stacy to be more independent as well as “giving her an opportunity to interact with peers and coworkers and increase her financial independence.”

Stacy noted that in the future she’d love to take her learned skills and work with children in a daycare facility. In her role now with the cleaning crew, Stacy is given tasks and the freedom to complete those tasks independently. Stephanie added that, “Group Employment provides the opportunity to work on skills that a person would need in order to obtain a job in the community.”

Stacy’s group employment was a team effort between her SSA Stephanie, AFS founder Nancy Hunter, and Stacy herself. According to Stephanie, “The team works together to determine if the person wants to participate in group employment opportunities and if they’d be a good fit for the type of work available.” Stacy proudly spoke about how she’d wanted this position for a long time.

With a supervisor available to offer support at any time and a strong will to do well, Stacy is excelling in her group employment position on her AFS nightly cleaning crew.

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Kerri Silverthorn Thu, Jan 28th, 2021