HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 06 City of Springfield, Employer of the Year AwardMarch 7, 2016 Springfield Upbeat
City of Springfield, Employer of the Year Award KarLynn Akins
On February 11, 2016, The City of Springfield was recognized as Employer of the Year for the ARC of Lane County. The City of Springfield was recognized for their innovation on integrating the intellectual
and developmental disabled population into the work place and community. A variety of businesses as well as government programs were nominated for this prestigious award.
In late 2014 we began meeting on developing opportunities for the intellectual and developmentally disabled population within the City of Springfield. In early 2015 we kicked off the first step of our program by developing a currier program with the support of the Justice Department. This proved to be a
huge success and assisted staff at the Justice Center to focus on other tasks. It is estimated this saved the Court, Police Department and Jail over 400 hours of staff time in 2015 alone.
In December 2015 we expanded this program to include City Hall. Last month KarLynn Akins, Volunteer Coordinator for the City, met with OPS and will be looking to include this department as
well. The currier program entails the mail, as well as interoffice mail, to be picked up and delivered to
City departments daily. In addition the front desk in Administrative Services is staffed just under 20 hours a week by volunteers in this program. It is estimated this has saved over 600 hours of work time to date,
allowing employees to focus on other more pressing work assignments while teaching valuable job skills
to a segment of the population who rarely have access to City government employment.
In addition to these programs, for the first time ever, over 20 disabled individuals lead and participated in the 2015 Christmas parade by carrying banners announcing the parade, recognizing our Mayor and City Councilors, as well as float division winners. They walked the entire parade route and proudly
represented the City of Springfield. These activities help to meet the Council goals of inclusion and diversity in the work place.
While this program has taken some staff time to manage and develop, the impact on the City of Springfield’s employees as well as added productivity this service has provided to City departments is
immense.