Catholic Charities and Skils'kin team up to help low-income people with disabilities find employment while retaining benefits

Dec. 14—Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington is teaming up with Skils'kin to provide employment support to low-income people with disabilities living in Catholic Charities housing. The idea is to help residents find employment without losing their benefits.

Skils'kin is a Spokane-based nonprofit that creates employment opportunities for people with disabilities through government and commercial contracts.

"Pulling these two groups together is going to change a lot of lives" said Steve McBride, Skils'kin vice president of operations.

The partnership will hold monthly job events rotating through Catholic Charities' haven properties that house people who were recently homeless.

About 25% of people in Catholic Charities housing have a disclosed disability — and that is thought to be an undercount.

Once their essential needs are met, people want to work, but many are afraid to lose their social security, housing or disability benefits.

"They are afraid of losing the stability that they just earned by getting into this housing, but they want to work," said Susan Foster-Dow, Catholic Charities' chief mission and strategy officer. "They want to make a contribution."

At one of the first job events Thursday, Skils'kin job coaches met with residents of Donna Hanson Haven downtown.

Matthew Adams, 62, who has lived in Catholic Charities housing for over a year, visited with Skils'kin navigator Dana Divine about several job openings that could be a good fit. He plans to apply.

"With my age, anything I can still do," he said.

Adams has an artificial knee, limited mobility in his left arm and pain with the discs in his neck that make it impossible to do the physical labor he used to. He has social security benefits and is applying for disability benefits.

"I'm glad there is a program where someone is trying to help, so I appreciate that," Adams said.

The job coaches can talk through their other concerns or hesitations. Skils'kin can make all kinds of accommodations for workers with different needs.

"There is dignity in work," McBride said. "We are trying to create more opportunities for people to experience and feel that."

With minimum wage, there is about a 20-hour weekly limit before hitting the income level where benefits are lost. If they go over, it could take years to get those benefits back.

While some may want to work more, many don't have the ability or stamina to work 40 hours a week, McBride said. The prospect of losing Medicare or Medicaid just isn't worth the risk to many, so they don't apply. But Skils'kin can help those who still want to work.

The initiative won a $633,000 award from Catholic Charities USA Social Innovation Challenge in October.

They are calling it the Next STEP Initiative. STEP stands for Supported Transitions to Employment Possibilities.

As a pilot program, they hope to spread the model to local Catholic Charities and Source America affiliates across the country.

McBride said it should be an easy model to implement since most of the infrastructure is already there, so it's just about bringing the expertise of both organizations together.

James Hanlon's reporting for The Spokesman-Review is funded in part by Report for America and by members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished by other organizations for free under a Creative Commons license. For more information on this, please contact our newspaper's managing editor.