VIP INDUSTRIES PROVIDES TRAINING, JOBS AND SATISFACTION FOR AREA DISABLED

Some of the employees assembling over-door handles for car interiors worked quickly. Some were painfully slow. Some focused intently on the work. Others had occasional concentration lapses.

But how fast these employees work isn't as important as that they are working and getting a paycheck for their efforts at VIP Industries, a sheltered workshop for mentally and physically handicapped individuals.

"We try to find jobs they can do well so they can be successful, which is important to everyone, especially those with handicaps," said Hilary Schmittzehe, chief executive officer for VIP.

Clients at VIP include the mentally handicapped, mentally ill, those who have been disabled by stroke, head injury, alcohol or drug abuse.

They are referred to the company by family members or the Association for Retarded Citizens, which helped start VIP about 30 years ago. Just as at any company, there is an application process where abilities and aptitudes are assessed. It's just that these workers' abilities are limited by their disabilities, and it can sometimes take more effort to find jobs they are suited for.

For some, VIP is their permanent place of employment. For others, who may be recovering from injuries or disabilities, it is a stepping stone to the nonsheltered workforce.

"It allows them to get over the fears of going back to work in an atmosphere where speed isn't a priority," Schmittzehe said.

For all workers VIP provides training and experience in a work environment for people who may have had little experience with the outside world.

"We once got a referral for a 57-year-old who had never been out of his house," Schmittzehe said.

What is emphasized at VIP is the ability to get along with others and feel good about themselves, said Schmittzehe, who has two mentally handicapped daughters.

"It gets them out of bed every day. They learn a skill. They have increased self-esteem. They get paid. But perhaps the most important thing they get here is social interaction," Schmittzehe said.

He said isolation is common for those with mental handicaps and mental illness. They benefit greatly from their interaction with other employees, who may share similar disabilities, and with managers and staff members.

Supervisors help with problems, work or personal, the clients have.

Pay is also important.

"In the past the retarded were consumers of assets," Schmittzehe said. "But now some of our clients are the primary providers for their families."

While VIP is a sheltered workshop, it is definitely a business.

Schmittzehe said in its early years, the company was run more as a social service program. But after going broke a few times, he said, the directors realized VIP had to be run as a business if the company was going to succeed.

Schmittzehe, who had been in the jewelry business, was brought in as chief executive officer and managed to impose a business sensibility on top of a social service. The name even changed from Cape Girardeau Sheltered Workshop to VIP Industries.

"I wanted to do everything like a regular business," Schmittzehe said. "When we look for contracts, we don't say we have handicapped workers. We just say we have workers."

He said the more successful VIP is, the more contracts for jobs negotiated, the more money earned, the better it is be for everyone.

That's especially true since VIP employees are paid even when there is no work to do. And while the federal government pays VIP $13 per day for each client, that generally only covers the salaries of supervisors, who must monitor these employees more closely than the supervisors at an industrial plant.

Client paychecks come from contract fees. So it's to everyone's benefit to keep contracts coming in.

And they've managed to do that. A measure of VIP's success is that it's one of the largest customers of the U.S. Post Office in Cape Girardeau. The company will spend about $2 million in postage this year as it sends out mailings for companies and ships out completed products, said Barry Zerbe, VIP's director of sales.

A three-person sales staff stays busy looking for contracts for work VIP Industry employees can do.

Schmittzehe said there are many companies now that want to contract out the assembly or packing of items rather than do it themselves.

"We look for any kind of job with routine assembly," said Zerbe.

The handicapped workers have different levels of productive capabilities and VIP tries to gear jobs to those productive levels, he said.

"We look at who among our workers can do the job," Zerbe said.

He showed a production line where workers were assembling a cookbook in a binder notebook.

"We set up the line according to the work individuals can do," Zerbe said. "One person may only be capable of putting in one item at a time. While another may be able to put in three items. We pace the machine to the pace of the workers and the difficulty of the job."

VIP has begun a security shredding business, contracting with banks, schools, law offices and others to shred documents.

Most of the employees who work in this area have disabilities that cause them to be unable to read. This might be a problem in some work situations, but the inability to read is a plus when shredding documents that may include names or other secure information.

Through a contract with an automobile manufacturer, VIP assembles the interior handles found above the rear doors in many cars. In another area, VIP clients put stickers on the bottom of small clay plant pots.

Packing and packaging products are good jobs for VIP workers. One contract calls for them to put cosmetic items into plastic gift bags. For another contract, workers fill bags of wild bird feed, put them in boxes, wrap them with shrink wrap, then warehouse and distribute the product, said Zerbe.

Pay for VIP clients is based on industry averages extrapolated down to units per hours. To illustrate, Schmittzehe said suppose assemblers of auto handles at a plant make $10 per hour and assemble an average of 10 handles per hour. That breaks down to $1 for each handle assembled.

A VIP client might assemble three per hour so would be paid $3 per hour.

One goal of VIP is to find jobs that clients can do successfully. For instance, one employee is a whiz with a drill so he runs a drill that tightens screws for the door handles.

Clients generally work six hours per day and transportation is provided to get them to and from the plant.

"They come in, even if there is no work or if it's icy because their parents expect them to be at work. Often there would be no one home to care for them during the day," Schmittzehe said.

About 60 percent of VIP clients live with their families. But many of the remaining 40 percent live in supported living facilities run by Regency Management, an offshoot of VIP.

Another division is Heartland, which does sales, freight, warehousing, recycling and operates a vocational program for those who have graduated from VIP, the chronically unemployed

Sheltered workshops in Cape and satellite locations in other Southeast Missouri counties have about 350 clients. But VIP, Regency and Heartland employ a combined total of 600 to 900 people.

Together, VIP generates several million dollars per year in contracts. As a not-for-profit company, all profits go back into the company, Schmittzehe said.

Zerbe said VIP is not only providing employment for handicapped workers, but as the size and scope of the company has grown, the economic benefit can be felt throughout the community.