Posted on Jul 26, 2024 9:00:00 AM by Greater Green Bay Chamber
National Disability Independence Day is recognized every year on July 26th in the United States to commemorate the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Since 1990, the ADA has improved physical accessibility for people with disabilities by outlining building requirements for businesses and provided protection from employment discrimination.
Many organizations and groups in our community are dedicated to promoting inclusion for people of all abilities and breaking down the barriers that still exist today. In this blog post, we are featuring VaryAbility, a valued member of the Greater Green Bay Chamber, and one of the organizations doing work in this space. Learn more about VaryAbility and read success stories in this Q&A with Mallory Cornelius, Founder and President of VaryAbility.
Tell us about VaryAbility. What is your mission?
VaryAbility’s mission is to assist individuals with disabilities with their employment goals while also connecting employers with skilled job seekers. We support the job seekers, employee and employer on their personal path of employment. We do this by offering career readiness assessments, job development to include creation of resumes and cover letters, interview preparedness, setting up job shadows for career exploration, creating temporary work experience internship sites, job coaching, consulting with employers about benefits of hiring individuals with disabilities, supporting employees for successful employment, and assisting employers with job creation or customization to help meet their needs. Our number one goal is to ensure that those with disabilities who are ready for employment and want to work, have access to and support for successful employment. We want to narrow the gap between the unemployment rate of those with disabilities and those without.
Describe your journey to starting VaryAbility. What need did you see in Greater Green Bay? What was your goal?
VaryAbility was founded in 2017 to provide a different option to those with disabilities and their families while navigating the employment process. While working in this space for many years, I recognized opportunity within the type of personalized services that could be offered and knew that I could take my knowledge, expertise, and trust to build an organization whose only focus was successful employment outcomes. The goal was to simplify the process for both the job seeker, employee and employer while utilizing our services. By doing this, we would be able to support more people on an individualized basis. Each person’s employment journey is personal, therefore VaryAbility offers their fingerprint approach, tailoring our process on their own path. Not one person’s employment goals are the same, so we ensure that each job seeker and employer we work with gets the type of support that is going to help them be successful. That’s the fun part about what we do. We get to know so many different people and employers in our community.
How has VaryAbility grown and changed since 2017?
VaryAbility was originally DiverseAbility until 2020 when the name changed to VaryAbility. I was the sole employee until 2021. Since then, I have hired 3 individuals to join me as employment consultants. By doing this, VaryAbility can support even more individuals. VaryAbility started out only contracting with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and Lakeland Care in 2017 to support their consumers but has since then added Care WI and IRIS in 2018, and Inclusa in 2023. We also contracted with Green Bay Public Schools in the spring of 2019 to support one of their missions. We worked remotely until 2022 where we found an office located inside the Startup Hub giving us a more reliable and confidential meeting space. I and VaryAbility have been a trusted resource in the community by being featured in local publications throughout the years as a guest columnist or contributor. I was nominated twice for Young Entrepreneur of the Year and won in 2022. By adding 3 other consultants to work with me, we can triple and even quadruple the number of job seekers and employers we can assist each year.
How do you connect with job seekers and employers in the community?
Job seekers connect with us through our contracts with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Managed Care Organizations Lakeland Care, and Inclusa, and IRIS, through word of mouth and personal referral, on Facebook, through our website or on LinkedIn. Through the natural process of the work we do with each job seeker we work with, we connect with employers in the community through the typical process of searching for jobs, applying to jobs, following up, navigating job offers, and orientation through ongoing training. To further connect with employers, we will also participate in many Greater Green Bay Chamber events, participate in the Economic Development DEI and Talent Taskforces, participate in the Ashwaubenon Business Association, were a part of the Howard Suamico Business Professional Association, have been a speaker at area events as well as written articles for area publications educating employers about the benefits of hiring individuals with disabilities and how to connect with organizations like VaryAbility to do so. Employers can learn more about VaryAbility through our website, Facebook and LinkedIn.
What is the process like for job seekers at VaryAbility?
Once we receive a referral (job seeker) from one of the contract agencies, we will then set up an initial meeting to review the goals and plan. Typically, we then meet weekly to work towards their goals. This can include an assessment for our staff to better get to know the job seeker their skills, barriers and learn other considerations as it affects employment success. We will then assist in creating a resume, cover letter, reference list, teach them how to search for and apply for jobs based on the type of industry they are looking within, provide interview preparedness and depending on their level of independence, assist with follow ups, interviews, job offers, orientation and training and long-term job coaching. Sometimes the process involves setting up job shadows for career exploration or temporary work experience internships for them to gain experience working.
What is the process like for employers at VaryAbility?
VaryAbility will contact employers on behalf of job seekers to gain information about a particular job, the work environment, learn about openings or to set up informational interviews to learn as much as we can about the organization, job openings, and their hiring and training process. Once a job seeker is hired and the employer knows of our involvement, we will support the job seeker and the employer during the orientation and training phase as well as on going as needed depending on the relationship. We maintain regular contact with the employer to check in and ensure their new hire is performing to a standard at which is expected and offer support if needed in any way. This support can be consultation but is often job coaching.
Job coaching consists of a VaryAbility consultant coming onsite to be with the job seeker while they are learning their job. We do not take over training, but rather, assist during it. We follow the employer’s lead and their typical training practices. Our assistance could be creating assistive aides like checklists or picture boards, offering alternative communication suggestions, breaking down the training process with the employer into a more step by step process rather than all at once, and setting up performance and communication standards between the new employee and their coworkers. Sometimes we will offer training to the staff working with the new hire educating them about that person’s disability and suggestions for being successful while working with them.
Once we have developed a trusted relationship with employers, we receive messages asking if we have candidates for openings they have. We also can assist employers with reviewing their current needs to determine if job creation or customization is a good option. If so, we will assist in rearranging job tasks for better efficiency while customizing a job for one of our job seekers within their organization.
Something that is surprising to many is that a major benefit of working with VaryAbility for both the job seeker, employee and employer is that our services are free! Sometimes we are compared to staffing agencies, but we are different in our service offerings and philosophy. We don’t have contracts with employers to place an employee in and our job seekers are not employees or ours. Instead, we work with each job seeker and find out what kind of job they want, assess what will be a good fit or not, assist them in finding that right fit, and then to maintain successful employment.
Share some success stories with us!
VaryAbility was working with Jennifer for a couple of years before she successfully accepted a position she loves and has been there now 1.5 years! She would not settle for just any job and the wait was worth it. Jennifer is a classroom technician at Acceptional Minds. Jennifer has held a couple of different jobs and internships in the past, but she says this job is her favorite. She loves how inclusive her manager is and how supportive the entire team is. Jennifer is able to do many things she loves, help others, work with youth and children, as well as office work. The owner, Becky, explains that the work they do for the students they serve is constantly thinking about accommodations for others to achieve independence, so why would it be any different for them to offer accommodations to Jennifer or any employee. She is offered some accommodations that differ from others, but really, when you think about it, every employee has some type of accommodation, you just don’t know about it.
Abby has been delivering excellence with a smile at Culver’s as a food runner for 6 years! Way to go Abby! She loves her job and can’t believe it has been that long already. Her favorite thing about her job is the consistent schedule, her coworkers, and being able to interact with other people. Initially Abby was looking for a part time role where she could still have time off to hang out with her friends and do other activities during the week. Culver’s worked with her to create a schedule that works for her and them. Culver’s loves how dedicated and trustworthy she is. She is a great team member for them.
Seth has successfully been working at B3 Recycling for a little over a year now. He loves that he gets to do the one thing he wanted to do when we initially met with Seth, take apart electronics. B3 is an electronics recycler of all sizes of electronics. During the process of an informational interview, I learned that at times it was hard to find someone to consistently take apart and sort their smaller electronics, saying it is tedious and not as fun as larger items. VaryAbility then approached B3 explaining how Seth wanted to do just that. He has some physical limitations that would not allow him to carry heavy items or use larger tools. This was a win-win for everyone! Seth tried out the job temporarily to make sure it would be a great fit and now he has been a great addition to their team for over a year. We get feedback from one of the owners of B3 stating that they are very happy they have hired Seth and thanking us, that he is reliable and does a great job for them.
Through the years, VaryAbility has developed some trusted relationships with employers in the area. We will get phone calls from places who have previously hired a job seeker we supported asking if we have any other great candidates like the others they have hired. We are grateful for these partnerships and look forward to making more.
Our first hire was in December of 2017, and we have helped 94 job seekers obtain employment to date.
Connect with VaryAbility
In-person:
The Startup Hub
2701 Larsen Road #212
Green Bay, WI 54303
By phone:
920-449-2020
By email:
On social media:
Facebook: VaryAbility
LinkedIn: VaryAbility