To The Editor:
Since 1994, our firm has been fortunate enough to be a Supported Employment site for workers from The Greater Hartford Association for Retarded Citizens (HARC). We consider its client-workers to be an invaluable asset of this firm, performing an important function that technology simply can’t handle.
A significant part of the success of this program must be attributed to HARC’s unique Job Coach position. Every one of HARC’s 28 Supported Employment sites is managed by a Job Coach, who is on location at all times to ensure proper training and supervision and to serve as the liaison between the firm and HARC’s client-workers. The Job Coach makes the Supported Employment unit a virtually maintenance-free operation.
In sum, we have had a HARC supported employment site in our law firm for more than 13 years, because it makes good business sense to do so. If in the process we have enhanced in some small way the lives of the fine young HARC people working here, that is a most welcome bonus. But Pepe & Hazard has been the real beneficiary of this program.
We were recently honored by HARC as their employer of the year. We hope we might use that award as an opportunity to spread the word about Supported Employment and encourage employers in Greater Hartford to add HARC’s client-workers to their workforces. It is a unique opportunity to tap into a group of ready, willing and able employees.
Louis R. Pepe
Pepe & Hazard, LLP
Hartford
