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Connie Lewis, a job coach at PRIDE Industries, had a rough start in life. Born to an underprivileged family in Alabama, her parents struggled to provide for their three young daughters. To make ends meet, Connie’s family lived with her grandmother. Life was not easy.

Connie’s mother had a hunch that one of her little girls was hard-of-hearing. She also seemed to be developing a speech impediment. Unfortunately, the family was unable to provide the necessary medical care and quality of life she deserved. At five years old, Connie was put up for adoption.

After her adoption, life quickly changed for Connie. Her adoptive parents provided a new beginning. Connie’s adoptive mother was a speech therapist and an audiologist. Soon after her adoption, Connie received a set of hearing aids that also helped her gain speech. The use of hearing aids provided a completely new world for Connie.

Connie did her best to adjust to her new life while maintaining a relationship with her biological family. After graduating from high school, Connie attended the Alabama School for the Deaf where she met her husband, who is also deaf. They married and had two daughters. For the first few years, Connie stayed at home with her daughters. When she decided to join the workforce, Connie struggled to find and keep employment due to her disability. Connie never complained; she focused on the future, knowing she would find the right opportunity.

On April 2013, Connie connected with the PRIDE Industries team at Fort  Rucker, Alabama. Connie was hired as a job coach providing American Sign Language (ASL) translation at the base.

“This is what I was looking for,” Connie says. “I can practice using ASL with PRIDE’s deaf employees while helping with their job needs.” Job coaches are dedicated and talented individuals who understand individuals’ unique needs and provide support to ensure success at work.

“Connie was a huge part of the Fort Rucker start-up as she helped our employees with disabilities transition into their new jobs,” says Stephany Marshall, a PRIDE Rehabilitation Counselor, and Connie’s supervisor. “She has played a vital role as a facilitator in communication between our employees who are deaf and their supervisors and co-workers.”

PRIDE’s mission to help individuals with a wide range of disabilities succeed at work; assistive technologies play a vital role in supporting individuals with hearing or sight challenges. P3™ enabled tablets and mobile devices provide on-demand live ASL translator for better communication at work. Connie was supplied with a tablet loaded with P3™ communication software as additional support for hard-of-hearing and deaf employees at the base.

PRIDE’s structured support services include job coaches, case managers, counselors, and supervisors who understand each person’s strengths and challenges. Support services help individuals get the assistance they need and remove obstacles to employment.

Connie is motivated by helping others find success and self-esteem; she finds fulfillment in her work at PRIDE.

“Connie attributes her love for the job to her disability; having been hearing impaired her whole life and unable to verbally communicate until the age of five,” Marshall says. “Connie can relate to and understand the obstacles and challenges individuals with disabilities experience.” 

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Did You Know?

PRIDE’s structured support services include job coaches, case managers, counselors, and supervisors who understand each person’s strengths and challenges.

“This is what I was looking for. I can practice using ASL with PRIDE’s deaf employees while helping with their job needs”

Andrew (Andy) Emore joined the PRIDE Industries team at Joint Base McGuire–Dix–Lakehurst (JB-MDL), NJ, in March of 2013 as a Grounds Maintenance Laborer. Within his first year, his hard work was recognized and he earned a promotion to Tractor Operator.


Andy was born deaf to parents who are also deaf; he identifies with deaf culture.  In his early educational years, he was mainstreamed in a school that had a small group of children who were deaf.  Andy was with this group until third grade. Due to a lack of funding and budget cuts, he was forced to go to another school where he was the only deaf student. “It was very frustrating,” Andy said, “every day was more of a struggle to get the teachers to understand my deafness instead of me being able to learn from them and focus on my studies. Now looking back, schooling was a struggle due to misconceptions and a lack of awareness of my deafness and my disability. They didn’t think that I could actually do the same things as other students.”


“Because of a lot of my experiences and challenges growing up, I became dependent on alcohol. My deafness and dependency on alcohol impeded my ability to keep long-standing employment. Now I am a recovering alcoholic, five years sober, thanks to a strong core of support: my family and my close friend, who actively served this country for over 10 years. I also grew up in a military family. This instilled in me a great respect. Even though I cannot directly serve in the military, it is an honor to support the members of military and their family by maintaining the base. The job that I do is not comparable to the sacrifice that they make for us every day.”

Andy Emore

“Working for PRIDE Industries has given me the confidence to find success in potential and in failure.”

“From the first day of my PRIDE orientation, I was welcomed wonderfully. I am grateful to have been hired at PRIDE Industries; I have received unlimited support. PRIDE doesn’t just hire people with disabilities; they really know how to support and accommodate. Job coaches, who are also interpreters, have always been there to help facilitate communication and even clarify training where needed. The rehabilitation staff supports, encourages and advocates for people with disabilities, and they help them succeed by overcoming challenges. Every day, I’m still amazed at the support I receive. Personally, I feel finally someone gets it. Those in my environment and company don’t just perceive it as their jobs, and they don’t just draw the line with advocacy, but they help us stomp out the stigma of what it means to be a person with a disability. PRIDE’s mission helps us feel like a person – not just a number.”

 

“I believe in myself a lot more, and know that it is okay to do well. I have always known that I was capable, but working for PRIDE Industries has given me the confidence to find success in potential and in failure. As a Tractor Operator, I now get to work with other operators and members of the Grounds department. Since winter is coming, I am also a member of the snow removal team. I like working with big machines because my dad was a mechanic for 40 years and I grew up around all the large equipment (I was the breaker, and he was the fixer).  My long term goal is to become a Heavy Equipment Operator.”

 

With the support of his Department of Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor, and the on-the-job training he has received at PRIDE, Andy is already taking steps towards this goal. He says, “I always wanted to be outside working on the big toys. It makes me happy to be able to work with others with challenges similar and different to my own. Owning my own home and the opportunity to make a good steady income until retirement is also in my plans.”

 

“One of the biggest misconceptions people have about deafness is that it affects intelligence. To anyone reading this; don’t doubt yourself- give yourself the chance you need to succeed. We were all born with different challenges for different reasons, and everyone has a purpose. I look forward to each and every day coming to work, to learn new things and be able to bring my abilities to the table.”

 

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Today, valued customers and community leaders joined us for the opening and dedication of a new PRIDE Industries Training Facility at Ft. Bliss, Texas. The training center is designed to offer hands-on, advanced training in various facilities maintenance trades to PRIDE’s employees working at Ft. Bliss under a Directorate of Public Works (DPW) contract through the AbilityOne program.

 

AbilityOne (formerly Javits-Wagner-O’Day, or JWOD), is a federal program designed to create employment opportunities for people with severe disabilities. PRIDE employs more than 140 individuals on the contract, which creates jobs for people with, and without, disabilities.

 

The new training center is an open architecture building-within-a-building on the base. It will provide concentrated skills training in light carpentry, carpentry, electrical, plumbing skills and more. Training is available to all new and existing PRIDE employees, providing opportunities for growth and career advancement. In a true show of camaraderie and team spirit, the center was created by an all-volunteer team of PRIDE employees who were formally recognized for their contributions in a ribbon cutting ceremony.

 

The facility was dedicated in honor of Steve Cener – a former PRIDE employee with a disability who worked at Ft. Bliss in 2007-2008. A devoted employee, Steve passed away in 2008, but not without leaving a significant impression on his supervisors, peers and PRIDE’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Ziegler, to whom he wrote these words…”I wanted to thank you all for the chance to live again…lately I have had no life, no job and no friends. So thank you for giving me the reason to live and hold my head up with pride.”

 

Job training prepares people for employment, helps to ensure quality service to our valued customers – partners in our social mission – and advancement potential for all PRIDE employees. PRIDE’s dedicated employees could have created no greater legacy to Steve, than a brighter future for other employees with disabilities.

David Ludwick joined PRIDE Industries in August 2009. He is as a worker on the roads and grounds crew, an important part of the base wide facilities services that PRIDE provides to the D.P.W. at Fort Bliss, TX.

 

David is a post-Vietnam veteran. While he served his country – it seemed his country had forgotten David. His disability made it difficult for him to find, or hold, employment. He was anxious in interviews, resulting in closed doors. Seasonal work was not sufficient to sustain him, and he had been in and out of the system for so long that supports were no longer there and the transition to full time work was extremely challenging. He had no connection to family, and eventually he had no home.

 

David had been homeless for a number of years when he was referred to PRIDE’s Employment Services office in El Paso. PRIDE’s Employment Services staff works to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities across the country, including in El Paso where many individuals with disabilities find opportunity on PRIDE’s contract at Fort Bliss, TX.

 

PRIDE saw through David’s challenges to his potential. In partnership with the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS), PRIDE supported David’s efforts for personal rehabilitation, including the restoration of services that he had once been receiving. It took the combined efforts of DARS, several VA programs, Goodwill, PRIDE’s Employment Services Office and HR department at Ft. Bliss to help David succeed. But most of all, it was David’s determination to keep on working toward the goal of employment and stabilization that helped him to achieve his goals.

 

David worked hard and participated in many services to get prepared to work. With support and training, he has thrived in his job – his first full-time job in years. He has formed friendships with members of his crew, happily takes on additional responsibilities, and has the respect of his supervisors. In addition to a paycheck and benefits, David has earned self-sufficiency and independence. Once homeless and unemployed, David now has a home and a future.

 

When PRIDE’s Employment Services Manager talked to David about highlighting him for this success story, he was really moved. He said, “It started out just a regular day, and now look what has happened!” He thanked us sincerely, and then said, “This was really a team effort. It wasn’t just me. It was all of us working together.” There really has been a huge change in David and in his life since we started working with him 2 years ago. We are all really proud of him!

 

When PRIDE and its partners and customers work together to create jobs and opportunities for individuals with disabilities, we all benefit – as tax consumers become community contributors. But the most important measure of our success is the transformational change it makes in the lives of people like David.

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“This was really a team effort. It wasn’t just me. It was all of us working together.”