Vadis Navigates Pandemic to Keep People With Disabilities and Homeless Youth Employed
Seattle, WA. Vadis has been providing services to people with disabilities since 1979, and had to creatively adapt to the pandemic. The nonprofit provides services to adults with disabilities and to youth and young adults experiencing homelessness and recently, Vadis administrators had to learn how to support people in new and virtual ways. This included helping the people Vadis supports in employment to understand the ramifications of COVID and in particular, all the safety protocols now in place, like masking in the photo above. According to CEO Christopher Christian, “this was not a swift and easy transition for many of the people we support in jobs in the community.”
Many of the people Vadis supports were deemed essential workers due to the nature of their jobs. They needed to keep working or rapidly return to work when many others in their lives were not, or had the option to work from home whereas they did not. In some cases, the people Vadis supports do not have control of their home environment and decisions are made for them. Some of those decisions included not being supported to go back to work for fear they would bring COVID back home with them from the work environment. Staff deployment and roles had to immediately change and morph with ever-evolving social restrictions and rules.
Many of the people supported by Vadis were deemed essential workers from the start of the pandemic.
Vadis administrators say they were in a “continual state of flux and adjustment, like everyone else, on a daily basis for a long time.” Alongside new employee-based working conditions and parameters, Vadis also “simply lost employees, or employees availability due to fear or the need to stay home with their school-aged children.” This stretched already strained staffing resources and ultimately affected how Vadis could support people in their jobs, or pursuit of jobs.
Team members at Vadis “learned by necessity” how to maximize the ability to support people in the best way possible through virtual means. This lead to the discovery of new and virtual ways for people with disabilities to engage in their communities, even during a pandemic. Virtual participation included online classes, clubs, support groups, educational events, and learning engagements.
New opportunities for employment arose when many were seeking assistance from Vadis during the ebb and flow of the pandemic.
There are additional positive developments for Vadis amidst COVID-19. Many of the people supported were designated as essential workers right from the start of the pandemic. As jobs became increasingly unfilled with employers, this created additional employment opportunities for people seeking employment, who did indeed want to work.
Christian says, “Like everyone else, we have helped people cope with the unknown, chronic change, sense of powerlessness in their lives and the uncertainty of knowing if their employer would be needing them back.” As safety protocols continued to shift and vary, and the frequency with which they changed, many people supported by Vadis faced consternation and adjustment challenges.
From Vadis:
Vadis has been providing services to people with disabilities since 1979.
From a small agency serving 25 people, we have evolved, expanded and now serve over 1,000 people per month in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap, Thurston and Mason Counties.
What hasn’t changed is our commitment to the people we serve. We strive to provide people with disabilities, and those who experience homelessness, opportunities and experiences to fulfill their economic and human potential.
Vadis is dedicated to assisting businesses in finding great employees and be a more inclusive employer. Our focus on customer service is your assurance of excellence!
If you have questions or need to talk with staff, please call (253) 863-5173.
For more info click here: Vadis.
