Linkages, a 12-year-old Tucson-based program that finds jobs for handicapped workers, has opened offices in Yuma and Casa Grande, with plans to move into Phoenix and Flagstaff.
The agency helped find 568 people jobs in Pima County during 2007 through its Tucson office, according to Ethan Orr, executive director of Linkages.
“Disability for our purposes we use a very broad definition — anyone with a mental, physical or emotional impairment,” Orr said. He said the agency also places ex-offenders and low-income people who qualify for the federal Food Stamp program.
The agency’s mission is as much a matter of finding employees for employers as the other way around, according to Orr.
“We don’t advocate hiring people because it’s a good community thing to do, we advocate because they’ll be a good employee. We’ve had people be hired and become employee of the year,” Orr said.
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Linkages works with Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona, La Frontera, the Beacon Foundation and other public and private social service agencies to find work for clients. Orr said Eegees, Safeway, Fry’s, Raytheon and University Medical Center are a few of the businesses that have hired workers through Linkages.
Besides using a federal hiring bonus — a $2,400 tax credit to the employer for each qualifying worker hired — Orr said the service does a good job matching workers with specific jobs. Currently, he said, there are 1,200 workers on Linkages database of job seekers.
“It actually improves morale,” Orr said. “You just can’t get a bad attitude working next to a guy who has to ride the bus and has so many obstacles in life, and is still so grateful to come to work.”
He said the average cost to an employer of accommodating a new handicapped worker is $50.
Orr said he hopes to open offices in Flagstaff and Phoenix by mid-2009.