Entrepreneurship on Display at Community Market
Every Sunday, the parking lot at City Hall is transformed into a busy, buzzing farmers market filled with booths and tables offering fresh regional produce, prepared foods, flowers, baked goods, artwork, and more.
Among the latest vendors to participate in this vibrant community spot? Quality Connections members, selling homemade breads, trendy t-shirts, and tote bags, and in the very near future, glazed stoneware – all produced by individuals with disabilities.
It’s part of Quality Connections exploration of entrepreneurship as an avenue to employment.
David Smith, the director of QC Office, the social enterprise that funds much of the work that we do at Quality Connections, is also involved in running the Flagstaff Community Market.
He suggested that members set up a table, primarily to sell items like baked goods made by members in QC’s Page program.
Then a grant from the state Department of Economic Security to benefit individuals with developmental disabilities allowed QC to get equipment and supplies so its Pathways program participants could create additional items.
The equipment included a special printer and heat press to create customized t-shirts and tote bags, and a kiln, clay, and tools for making ceramic products.
The Pathway participants use ChatGPT to create their initial designs. Popular ones include slogans like “Diversity Matters”. The designs are then printed onto a special heat transfer film that is treated and baked with a powder that dries and stabilizes the ink in the design so that it can be transferred onto fabric with the help of a heat press.
“It literally pressed the colors into the fibers of the fabric – it’s not like an iron-on transfer,” said Amy King, the Employment Services Program Manager at QC. “It’s a legitimate, printed t-shirt and it’s very nice.”
Among the designs are a brain with the slogan “Neurodiversity – Celebrate the Spectrum” or, for Halloween, a jack o’lantern with bats proclaiming “Disability Rights are Human Rights.”
Right now, some of the Pathways members are creating their first items for sale out of clay. Amy said QC chose clay to work with because it’s helpful both on a physical and an emotional level.
“Working with clay helps our members with dexterity, but it’s also very cathartic,” she said.
QC participants are shepherding their creations from greenware (unfired, bone-dry clay), firing them to make them bisqueware (hard, porous, unglazed ceramics), and then glazing their creations and firing them one last time to create stoneware.
Right now, the members are making “trinket trays,” typically used as catch-alls for small jewelry, keys, or loose change – although Amy said they could be used for food as well.
“We chose a clear glaze that’s food safe, so you could use it as a butter dish!” she said.
The four sellers at the Farmers Market are part of QC’s Group Supported Employment program and are paid minimum wage to vend the items. They are picked up at 7 am so they can help set up the table and products before the 8 am opening of the market, and then help break down the space after it closes at noon.
“They are steadfast,” noted Amy. “And a lot of our members are well known in the community – Flagstaff is a small town and everyone knows everyone, so people come up to greet them and catch up.”
The table at the market does double duty – in addition to selling, it gives folks a chance to learn more about Quality Connections and its services for individuals with disabilities.
The summer Community Market will close for the season on Sunday, Oct. 26th, but there will be a special holiday market on December 7th and 8th and Quality Connections plans to be there. The plan to create stoneware ornaments and t-shirts promoting diversity and disability rights with a Christmas theme.
80 Years of NDEAM
Happy NDEAM Month!
National Disability Employment Awareness Month, is an annual awareness campaign that takes place each October. Designed to bring attention to disability employment and celebrate the many and varied contributions of America’s workers with disabilities, this year’s theme is “Celebrating Value and Talent.”
The history of NDEAM goes back to 1945, when it began as a weeklong recognition of people with physical disabilities. Later, NDEAM was expanded to a full month and evolved to include all people with disabilities, including those with mental health conditions and other non-obvious disabilities, acknowledging the importance of increasing their access to employment.
Companies that lead in disability inclusion drive more revenue, net income, and profit, according to a 2023 research report from Accenture, done in partnership with Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities.
Building on the 2018 report on disability inclusion at work in the United States, the follow-up research, titled “The Disability Inclusion Imperative,” explored disability inclusion amid major technological advances and the impact of the pandemic.
The report indicated that companies that have led on key disability inclusion criteria over that time saw 1.6 times more revenue, 2.6 times more net income, and 2 times more economic profit.
Between 2018 and 2023, the number of people with disabilities in the workforce has swelled from 29 percent to 37 percent.
If you are interested in hiring workers with disabilities or are looking to explore workplace accommodations to support a disabled employee, please contact Quality Connections. You can call us at (928) 773-8787 or read more here.
