I have heard of the national advocacy against sheltered workshops. Sheltered workshops do things like shredding paper to earn money, sometimes licensed by states for below minimum wages. This company was founded based on a self-employment gone front page awareness and then again with other kinds of awareness like television news and radio campaigns donated. Centered on one person to hire others with qualifying disabilities to make candles and other products the community can support. Hiring others to make candles as a disability owned project differs from someone I'd suppose grouping a bunch of disabled peoples together to shred paper and make a government paycheck as an administrator. It's different because the products are like any business hiring others in the mainstream like the every day world does.

However not everyone wants to make products for a living nor aspires to sit in a boring center all day long. So that is why the Humboldt Includes campaign was formed to try to articulate to the public and businesses to be open minded at first to include. Typically government funded programs don't assign a support aid one on one to help transition someone who needs help to mainstream employment. I suppose the stepping stone for any government funded business is dependency on dependency of the program for the sake of making a wage as an owner. Programs are not typically modeled as a businesses to create formable independence from them as they would loose money from the government despite being funded to create independence.

The biases that might be perceived in other organizations true or not have nothing to do with this organization as it is disability owned with special rules of conduct. As this organization moves forward all these factors are considered. Conflicts of interests, ethics and inclusion in the best and most independence forming ways will be implored. However this organization despite all of the awareness that has been created has operated thus far and achieved what it has on what can be called a shoe string budget. It's not the intent to profit from disabled individuals like me or others in sacrifice of mainstream inclusions and participations. What this organization will receive from tax-dollars at a later date is to assure the funding of transitional mainstream employment that neither me as the founder or it's board of directors by company policy can make a paycheck from. The core company, C.I without regards to a product such as a candle or lotion is to operate with detailed concern of creating ability vs. creating co-dependency to profit from. Bias though is universal as helpers do depend on monies to survive so it is unavoidable.

C.I in premise will attempt to motivate disability service organizations to include individuals with the supports they need. The Humboldt Includes campaign does not directly cost other organizations, individuals with disabilities or the government any money. A sponsored employment position for job skills development then has no excuse to be hindered other then the lack of profits derived by one on one support. An individual with disabilities has the fundamental choice to participate or not and some do choose center based employment activities. This right is protected under California law and in general universal human rights.

The idea of isolating someone or else work in a center or in the mainstream is archaic. What might be considered sheltered employment may also be a general inclusion organization facilitating social well being and life skills development. From state to state the "system" is private sector or not and can vary in required models.

Sincerely,

Nathan Young