By Bridget Higdon-Boudreau of the St. Albans Messenger
Reprinted with permission.
ST. ALBANS — Chris Bouchard, manager of environmental services at Northwestern Medical Center, is the recipient of a Vermont “Spirit of the ADA” Award.
The Governor’s Committee on the Employment of People with Disabilities honors Vermont employers who embody the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act in their employment practices. This includes ensuring accessibility and actively recruiting, training and retaining individuals with disabilities as part of their overall employment strategy.
For the last two years, Bouchard has collaborated with Northwestern Counseling and Support Services to employ three people with developmental disabilities in the hospital’s environmental services department. They work as aides, thoroughly cleaning public spaces, like waiting areas, hallways and conference rooms.
“They jumped right in with both feet,” Bouchard said. “They’ve been with us over two years now, and we have seen tremendous growth in each person.”
Through the program, the employees receive training and mentorship from NMC’s environmental services technicians and job coaching from a team at NCSS.
Bouchard said the goal is to eventually train these employees up into environmental technician roles, so that NMC can then take on new aides. Techs are responsible for cleaning and disinfecting the hospital’s patient-centered spaces, including exam rooms.
“We struggle so much for frontline employees,” Bouchard said. “Part of the idea for this program was ‘How do we build our next group of employees, and how do we make the barrier to entry lower so that we can create our next workforce?’”
For the folks enrolled in the program, Bouchard said the job has helped provide them with valuable independence and community, which can be challenging to find after high school graduation.
“I know one of our individuals has told me he loves coming here because it’s his family, it’s his community, and he loves everyone here,” Bouchard said.
The program is modeled in part after Howard Center’s Project SEARCH. Bouchard helped facilitate that program — also for people with developmental disabilities — when he worked in environmental services at University of Vermont Medical Center.
When he came to NMC, he brought the idea to hospital leadership, who he said were enthusiastic about making it possible.
“I can’t sing their praises enough about running with this idea because it’s not easy to get something like this off the ground,” Bouchard said, adding the program also would not have been possible without the help of NCSS.
As with any new initiative, there is time to spend and logistics to figure out, but Bouchard encourages other employers to dream up similar programs, because it’s worth the effort.
“Just taking the jump, it’s well worth it,” he said. “It’s seeing the development, giving opportunities where there may not be opportunities before. Bringing in new ideas and new thoughts and new processes.
“There are folks out there who want to see these people succeed in the workplace.”
