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"They dropped off sharply, about 50 percent," Koch noted.
The current economic condition is making for tough times at many of the state's 93 sheltered workshops, which get between 70 and 80 percent of their funding from contract work. The other 20 to 30 percent comes from state assistance and other sources, like the Franklin County Area United Way.
Sheltered workshops, which are small, nonprofit businesses that employ people with disabilities, provide light industrial work. Jobs may include sorting, collating, labeling, salvage, inspection, folding, mailing, sewing, subassembly, heat sealing, arbor press work, hand packaging, shrink, film, and blister packaging, electrical subassemblies, metal punch press operations, painting, manufacture of pallets, fishing lures, wooden craft items, etc.
Sheltered workshops also provide services, like janitorial work, grounds maintenance and commercial laundry operations. One of the jobs for employees from the sheltered workshop in Sullivan, Sheltered Industries of the Meramec Valley, is to maintain the Interstate 44 rest area at St. Clair.
At TEMCO Inc., the employees mainly do parts assembly and packaging work. At Sheltered Workshops Inc. they do a lot of woodworking, like building pallets and special boxes, as well as parts assembly and packaging.
Each sheltered workshop is a separate nonprofit organization, and each establishes its own customer base. At Sheltered Workshops Inc. and TEMCO Inc., customers include many local industries like Sporlan Valve, Missouri Meerschaum and Romer Labs, to name just a few.
All of the workshops follow guidelines set up by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which oversees the program.
Since the economic slowdown hit last fall, both TEMCO Inc. and Sheltered Workshop Inc., like many for-profit businesses, have begun looking for new ways to generate revenue and cut costs.
"We may try to get work that we might not have considered before, work that is only marginally profitable, to keep us going like any business," Engemann noted.
Yet despite the drop in available work, both workshops are not currently laying off any employees. Instead, they have been offering voluntary time off. "We've had enough work trickling in to keep us going," said Koch, noting the Washington workshop has about 103 employees with disabilities, plus a few high school students with special needs who work there through the School to Work program.
TEMCO Inc. has about 60 employees with disabilities, and Sheltered Industries of the Meramec Valley in Sullivan employs 110.
Across the state, sheltered workshops employ more than 7,500 people with disabilities, and there is a significant waiting list of more people who want to work if there are any openings.
"It used to be around 200 people on the waiting list, but now it's more like 800," said Koch.
The lengthy waiting list illustrates how important sheltered workshops are for people with disabilities, he said. They provide a source of income, learning opportunities and a social outlet. Not to mention that the work instills a sense of pride in the employees and is a boost to their self-esteem, noted Engemann.
"If it weren't for sheltered workshops, many people with disabilities would have a hard time finding a job, especially in a competitive work force," he said.
Strong Return on Investment
Sheltered workshops were created more than 40 years ago with the passage of Senate Bill 52 to provide employment opportunities for adults with disabilities. Since then the program has proved valuable three times over - to the people the workshops employs, the customers the workshops serve and the communities in which they are located.
"It's a win-win-win situation," Engemann remarked.
It's a good service we provide to industry," added Koch. "We offer more than just a work force.
"Our service enables (other businesses) to open up floor space in their buildings, we provide the equipment, transportation of the product, we help keep their inventory levels, we reorder parts . . . "
The state's extended employment sheltered workshop program costs the state only about $15 a day per employee in attendance. However, the return on that investment is more than 3 1/2 times that. For every $1 the state pays to fund the program, the 93 sheltered workshops generate $3.55 in contract sales from private industry, said Engemann.
"Besides being a great opportunity for the employees of the workshops, this is also a great bargan for the state's taxpayers!" he remarked, noting on average, state and county tax dollars account for less than half of the operating budgets of the 93 nonprofit sheltered workshops.
"It used to be a $4 return on investment, until this economic slowdown," he pointed out.
The alternative to funding the sheltered workshop program is providing for people with disabilities to attend some type of residential care facility, which can run $60 or more per day, said Engemann. On top of that, the people would not be contributing to the community as they do with sheltered workshops, where they provide services and also pay taxes on the money they earn.
Last year, the sheltered workshop program made more than $71.2 million in gross sales, which was a decrease of 17.2 percent from the previous year, but still a significant contribution.
Earlier this year, it was suggested that the state cut the funding it provides sheltered workshops to help balance the budget. Gov. Nixon's response to that in his State of the State address in January was that he won't let that happen.
"Now, some have called for the Sheltered Workshop Program to be eliminated," he told Missourians. "Let me tell you - that's not going to happen. Not while I serve as your Governor.
"Quite the contrary, in order to ensure that more Missourians . . . have the opportunity to live independent and successful lives, my budget proposes increasing funding for our Sheltered Workshop program."
If state funding was cut, Engemann said it would be a double hit to the sheltered workshop program.
"If we have our state funding cut at the same time our customers are pulling back because of a slow economy, it will be rough," he remarked.
Workload Strong In Sullivan
The sheltered workshop in Sullivan has been fortunate over the last several months to have avoided the slowdown being felt at other sites around the state. Sheltered Industries CEO Eric Giebler said he was nervous back in November - typically the start of the busy season - when work "almost came to a standstill" only to be followed by "slow, but not bad" sales in December.
Then suddenly orders began pouring in the second week of January, and they haven't showed any signs of slowing down.
"We have been swamped," Giebler remarked, noting he's even been able to subcontract some of that to other sheltered workshops.
He expects the strong workflow to continue through mid-April.
Giebler credits that in part to the company's niche service of running high-speed shrink-wrap lines, having a broad customer base and providing quality service - it was the first ISO certified sheltered workshop in the state and now is one of only two in the state.
"We can do between 35 and 60 units per minute on our (shrink-wrap) lines," he said. "We do a lot of aerosol products, books, brochures, really anything that can be shrink-wrapped.
"We have several local customers, several in St. Louis and on the west side of the state. We even have one out of Seattle, Wash."
Still, the global economic slowdown hasn't gone unnoticed at Sheltered Industries.
"I began noticing a change back in September, when a number of the companies we deal with weren't optimistic with what they were presenting," said Giebler.
Now, although sales are strong, Giebler said as far as generating new business or finding new opportunities are concerned, "that's not happening." Sheltered Industries has been insulated a bit because shrink-wrap services require a significant investment in equipment, so it's not something companies can't typically do in-house.
"That hand work that most sheltered workshops have done for years, that's the first thing that gets pulled back in tough times," Giebler commented.
