"Pete Halliday is having a great experience utilizing his local Vocational Rehabilitation office known as VESID. They assigned to him an Employment Resource Counselor who finds the right employees for his business. Pete provided a description of his business and the working environment to his counselor. The counselor screens individuals and puts them in contact with Pete to interview them. They have managed to fill every single position at Pete's business all within a matter of days. There has been minimal employee turnover and Pete is confident that his current crew will be working for him for years to come. The advantages to utilizing a service
like VESID are the tax breaks and the fact that the government reimburses (up to) the first one hundred sixty hours of labor per employee. The tax breaks are based on a percentage of the employee's pay. In Pete's state that can be as much as six thousand dollars the first year per employee! To get reimbursement for the first one hundred sixty hours of labor, Pete simply submits his payroll information to VESID, they present the information to the state, and Pete receives a check by mail in just two weeks time. Since Pete gets the first one hundred sixty hours of labor reimbursed, labor is essentially FREE for any employees who don't work out
initially.

By contacting your local vocational rehabilitation office, you too can tap into a wealth of resources related to employment options for people with disabilities. Vocational rehabilitation (VR), a state-supported division of services, assists individuals with disabilities who are pursuing meaningful careers. VR assists those individuals to secure gainful employment commensurate with their abilities and capabilities through local job searches and awareness of self-employment and telecommuting opportunities. In addition to VR, some states have separate agencies serving individuals who are blind and visually impaired. You may qualify for a tax credit for employing a person with a disability. For a listing of state vocational rehabilitation agencies please visit:http://www.jan.wvu.edu/cgi-win/TypeQuery.exe?902 "

Pete Halliday, Owner, 1-800-dryclean
Submitted by Laura Maas, VESID Rochester District Office

"On behalf of Datrose Inc., we would like to thank you, Laura Maas, for your recent support to secure funding for training for a VESID consumer.  We sincerely appreciate your time and effort in helping us to ensure that Felia’s transition to her new position was a success, and we are grateful for the support of VESID."

Jean L. Gardner
Human Resources
Datrose, Inc.

"Our employees are working in a number of different positions including machine operator, quality control inspector, laser printer operator, and personal computer support. We found some terrific employees through this relationship."

Kathy Hughes
Human Resources Director
DIMAC Director

"We at 1-800- FLOWERS see a tremendous advantage in hiring individuals with disabilities who care about their jobs, want to work and enjoy what they do. The results have been unbelievable. We have given people the opportunity to design flowers…work in public relations, in finance and in customer service."

Neil Halloran
Director of Floraversity
1-800-FLOWERS, Inc.

"We have 10 employers with disabilities working with us now in everything from janitorial services to production supervisor. They bring a terrific work ethic to the job."

Mark Blitstein
President, Owner
American Diagnostic Corp.

"We’ve hired individuals with disabilities for 10 years now. It’s one of our corporate commitments. The rehabilitation agency we deal with makes it very easy to screen for proper candidates and spend as much time as is necessary training workers. It’s worked out very well!"

Marc Blitstein, President
American Diagnostic Corp.

"We've found that individuals who start out as trainees are now capable of doing the full line of assembly tasks. I'd say that any company that is hesitant of hiring an individual with a disability should just step up and try it!"

John Mach
President
American Avionic Inc.
N.Y.S. NDEAM winner representing Long Island

We have hired individuals with disabilities to work in our produce department, returns, maintenance, bagging, grocery department and unloading trucks."

Christine McMahon
Grocery Supervisor, Waldbaums

"Our experience in hiring individuals with disabilities has had a positive impact on our community."

Kathy Bergin-Afonso
Manager, Waldbaums