Ready for the workplace

CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- As new employment consultant for the Tennessee Rehabilitation Center, Larry Mangrum seeks to find job opportunities for his disabled clients.

"Given the economy, it is a challenge," he said.

But the center's clients have their own selling points for potential employers, Mr. Mangrum said.

"From a workplace standpoint, they are trained," he said. "Their work skills have been sharpened. ... We've hopefully provided a skill set that will be beneficial to employers."

The center is a resource for the region's disabled who are seeking job training and placement. It has continuing contracts with local industries, primarily Whirlpool and Peyton's Southeastern, to provide jobs for clients during a slow economic period, manager Delwyn Smith said.

The center, which serves Cleveland, Bradley County and surrounding areas, held its annual open house Wednesday to mark the national observance of October as Disability Employment Month.

City and county officials came to watch center workers prepare shipping and packaging products for local industries. On the workshop floor, people including Patricia Murray and Charity Moses were preparing shipping material for Whirlpool's just-off-the-assembly-line appliances.

"What we do keeps them from getting scratched," Ms. Moses said.

Nearby, Larry Rucker was showing others how to clean blue containers used by the warehouse giant Peyton's Southeastern.

"They put food, medicine, things like that in the containers. See that pallet?" he said, pointing to a plastic-wrapped stack of blue containers prepared for shipping. "If just one of them is not ready, they will send the whole pallet back. It has to be done right."

Bradley County Mayor D. Gary Davis, who visited the center last week, called it "one of the hidden jewels" in the county.

"One of the good things Bradley County did several years ago is purchase this facility and lease it back to the state for this purpose," Mr. Davis said.

"It's amazing how they've grown," said Cleveland City Councilman George Poe, who is on the center's board of directors. "It amazes me how many people they turn out here."

Commissioner Ed Elkins said the center "makes productive citizens out of folks who otherwise might not have that opportunity."

With retirements and career moves, the center has had staff vacancies in recent months, but it is back up to full strength now, Mr. Smith said.

The center also may get a second rehabilitation assistant through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, he said.