This guest post is by Rhonda Guaderrama, Grant Writer of Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Desert. Rhonda is applying for our Supporting Small Businesses That Hire People With Disabilities Grant Opportunity ran by my nonprofit KFM Making A Difference. You can learn more about the grant opportunity here.
I hope you can support my nonprofit like I’m trying to support our community. I also produce educational videos to celebrate neurodiversity by spotlighting individuals impacted by a diagnosis. Learn more on how you can help our cause with a small donation (just asking for $3 today, equal to your daily cup of coffee) here.
My name is Rhonda Guaderrama and I am the Grant Writer for Boys & Girls Clubs of Hi-Desert (BGCHD). Let me tell you about our wonderful organization. As the only drop-in youth development organization in Yucca Valley, Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Desert has provided essential services to youth 5 to 18 for almost 40 years. Located in a low-income, rural community, the 16,000 square-foot Club serves over 100 youth daily, providing programming in Character and Leadership Development, Education and Career Development, Health and Life Skills, the Arts, and Sports, Fitness, and Recreation.
BGCHD offers before and after school programs, sports programs, and camps during school breaks. We also provide a free, healthy snack to youth each day, ensuring they have the nutrition they need to focus and study. In addition, BGCHD collaborates with the local school district to bus youth to the Club after school, providing them with safe, supervised transportation to the Club.
In Yucca Valley, many families live in poverty and many parents work more than one job to make ends meet. It is a mainly blue-collar town, with the majority of the residents commuting to nearby cities for work. The majority of our Club members are Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), and approximately 63% of Club members come from single-parent households. In addition, 100% of the children we serve are eligible for free/reduced lunch.
Our dedicated staff works tirelessly to meet our mission to provide a safe, positive, and affordable place for children, especially those who are at risk, to reach their full potential as caring, productive, and responsible citizens.
BGCHD is dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion both in practice and in policy and works diligently to ensure a warm, welcoming environment for staff as well as the youth we serve. We believe that employing those with disabilities is part of equity and inclusion in our organization and creates an accepting and supportive workplace for everyone. Our work in this area has not gone unnoticed; we recently received a grant from the Inland Empire Community Foundation to support our DEI work.
Currently, three of our eleven staff members have disabilities, including two of our Youth Development Professionals (YDPs) and our Program Director. In addition to hiring those with disabilities, BGCHD collaborates with the local high school to provide job training for youth with disabilities through their YVHS Work Study program. Teens in this program go through job interviews to get real-world practice and then begin their job training at the Club. They work directly with our staff, shadowing them to learn the basics of the job role. Working a set number of hours each week, they help staff with all aspects of the YDP job including serving snacks, assisting with games in the gym, cleaning the Club, tutoring younger Club members, and helping with crafts.
The YVHS Work Study program has been an incredible success. In fact, two of our current staff members were hired directly out of that program! They are both on the Autism spectrum and have overcome many challenges to become exceptional staff members. They also serve as important role models for our Club members who have disabilities. They really understand these youth’s hardships and barriers and make them feel understood and accepted. They are still working on workplace behaviors like setting boundaries, communicating with managers, and following schedules, much like all of our other employees.
Our Program Director is a retired Navy Veteran who was honorably discharged due to a medical disability. He started as a YDP and, in the beginning, struggled to communicate with Club youth in a way they would understand and had some trouble adjusting to the daily schedule. Fast forward three months and he was asking programming questions, participating in all training offered, excelling in the job role, and was promoted to the Program Director role.
We believe it is important, both for the potential employees and for the organization, to give those with disabilities a chance to find meaningful employment. By employing staff members with disabilities, we are creating a workplace culture that welcomes diversity and, most importantly, demonstrates to the youth we serve, that inclusion is important. With the unemployment rate for people with disabilities twice that of people without disabilities (Forbes), job seekers must have increased opportunities available to them. We believe that working in a mission-driven workplace like BGCHD makes those with disabilities feel seen, valued, and appreciated for their hard work.
National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) is a time for us to reflect on how far we have come in the disability movement while bringing attention to the workplace challenges that disabled employees continue to face. We are a small Club in a small town doing big things and we believe we are a model for other businesses on how to create an inclusive workplace; during NDEAM, we will celebrate our progress while looking ahead at ways we can do better. We will also take time to celebrate and honor the hard work and many contributions of our disabled staff members, reaffirming that it’s what employees CAN do that matters.
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Kerry Magro, a professional speaker and best-selling author who is also on the autism spectrum started the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference in 2011 to help students with autism receive scholarship aid to pursue a post-secondary education.
Have Kerry, one of the only professionally accredited speakers on the spectrum in the country, speak at your next event by sending him an inquiry here. If you have a referral for someone who many want him to speak please reach out as well! Kerry speaks with schools, businesses, government agencies, colleges, nonprofit organizations, parent groups and other special events on topics ranging from employment, how to succeed in college with a learning disability, internal communication, living with autism, bullying prevention, social media best practices, innovation, presentation best practices and much more!
