Creative Options for Rural Employment: A Beginning
Ann Temkin, M.A., ACSWCareer Planning and PlacementShepherd 
 Spinal CenterAtlanta, Georgia
Persons with disabilities who live in rural areas face special 
employment challenges.  Limited resources, isolation, increased 
poverty, decreased educational advantages, and a greater 
preponderance of manual labor jobs compound disability related 
issues.  It is estimated that 24% of persons with disabilities 
live in smaller or rural communities where the lack of both local 
services and jobs constitutes a grave problem (Jackson, 1992).
About two years ago, staff of the Shepherd Spinal Center's Career 
Planning and Placement (CP&P) became aware of the need for new 
services to meet the needs of  rural consumers.  The programs 
that were successful for urban persons with spinal cord injury 
simply did not meet the needs of those living in rural Georgia.  
Consumers who didn't want to move to a city were asking for a 
different approach.  We agreed with Nell Carney, past 
Commissioner of Rehabilitation Services Administration, who 
wrote:
"For more than seven decades, we have practiced urban vocational 
rehabilitation in America, forcing the person in need of services 
to come to us, to be willing to relocate, to give up the rural 
lifestyle.  In this decade of empowerment and equality for 
Americans with disabilities, forcing the urban model is no longer 
an option.  We must be willing to make the necessary adjustments 
to our programs required to meet the rehabilitation needs of 
those who choose to live in rural areas." (Carney, 1992, p.1).
Project Incubator, a program of paid internships and one of 
CP&P's most successful innovations, provided a beginning point 
for assisting rural consumers.  Project Incubator targets persons 
with the skills to perform a job but who lack the work experience 
needed to be hired.  Consumers develop an "internship plan" 
(simlar to a business plan) with assistance from staff and other 
project participants.  The consumer is then placed in an 
internship in his or her chosen field and work place and paid a 
stipend.  Virtually everyone who successfully completes an 
internship is employed after a short period of time.  Networking 
is a key component of locating suitable internships and 
employment possibilities.  However, the internship concept was 
not working for rural consumers because of the few potential work 
sites and the other rural issues referenced above.  Both CP&P 
staff and rural consumers were discouraged and looked for 
solutions.
One solution, Creative Options for Rural Employment (CORE) was 
born from CP&P's search for a new approach in rural areas.  Staff 
were aware that many of CP&P's rural consumers were successfully 
operating their own small businesses.  The main components of 
Project Incubator--the consumer's business plan, the stipend, and 
networking--became the basis of the CORE program for developing 
small entrepreneurial ventures.  CORE assists rural consumers 
with a marketable idea who have the skills and motivation needed 
to implement it.  
Although CORE is still in its infancy, and the stipend is small 
(about $1,500), it has been CP&P's experience that opening a 
door, even a small one, can make a great difference in a person's 
life.  The following is the story of Rose (her name has been 
changed), who was one of the first people to participate in the 
CORE program.  It is actually only the beginning of her story 
because the middle and end are not yet known.
Rose is a 47 year old woman with paraplegia who lives in a small 
rural community in northeast Georgia.  Rose is married with four 
grown children.  Prior to her injury in 1987, Rose had worked for 
more than 15 years in clerical and data processing positions.  
She was employed by the Social Security Administration and she 
and her husband had just bought a house when she was injured in 
an automobile accident.  Since her injury she has remained active 
in her church, taken courses to enhance her computer literacy, 
and maintained her garden and her home.
As early as 1988 Rose dreamed of starting a small computer 
services business.  She contacted several agencies, including the 
Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) and the Small Business 
Administration in an attempt to obtain necessary equipment and 
start-up costs.  A nonprofit agency was willing to sell her 
equipment at half price, but no funds were available.  She did 
manage, however, to write a play, an entrepreneurial manual for 
persons with disabilities, and one family newsletter.  But Rose 
needed computer equipment and start-up capital to develop paying 
customers.
In August 1993, following the first CORE meeting, Rose wrote a 
business plan and submitted it to CP&P.  In the plan she proposed 
producing newsletters, brochures, programs, and other documents 
for civic groups, families, and churches.  Describing the needs 
of her particular southern rural community, she stated:
"This service is unique in that it is the only one of its kind in 
a 40-mile radius.  It will assist churches; special occasion 
affairs; anniversaries, weddings, etc...in commemoration with 
lasting keepsakes of the event. 
"Documentation of historical events is much appreciated in this 
rural community as well as the promotion and preservation of 
family history and unity through newsletters."
Representatives of the local newspaper, the Adult Learning 
Center, and the president of a local business endorsed the 
marketability of Rose's idea and spoke highly of her integrity, 
maturity, and strength.  As a result of Rose's plan CP&P agreed 
to provide the equivalent of a stipend to cover some start-up 
costs (e.g., business license, business cards, some advertising, 
and a toll-free phone number).  This stipend ($400/month) would 
be supplied for three months at which time the need for 
additional funding and its availability would be explored.  Rose 
would be responsible for budgeting and recordkeeping.  
Equipment continued to pose a problem.  It was widely thought 
that the Georgia DRS would not pay for equipment for home 
business start up--that they just paid for equipment and 
modifications for established home businesses.  Although Rose was 
willing to try to use another businesses' computer, copier, and 
fax machine for a fee or through a bartering arrangement, it was 
thought that DRS funding should be pursued.  As a result of 
pursuing DRS funding, Rose's DRS counselor was committed to DRS 
purchase of the equipment.  A month later he had obtained 
permission to do so.  Thanks to this counselor's willingness to 
pursue what would normally not be agency practice, to the fact 
that Rose's plan was viable and endorsed by CP&P, and to the 
willingness of the DRS administration to try something different, 
a new precedent was set.  Rose received a computer, printer, and 
FAX machine.
Through networking, the resources of other agencies were made 
available to Rose.  For example Bell South Work at Home 
Connection put Rose on their mailing list for home business 
entrepreneurs, the Georgia State Small Business Assistance 
Development Center provides Rose access to their resource library 
and offered to contact their counterparts in a town closer to 
Rose's home, and Rose was made aware of information and technical 
assistance available from the Women's Entrepreneurial Center and 
the Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Center.
Rose now operates a licensed business with a 
contemporary-sounding name and a marketing package.  Only a few 
months have passed since Rose's equipment was delivered.  
Although these have been summer months filled with family 
activities, Rose has moved forward and obtained paying customers.  
Work she has produced since getting her long-awaited computer 
includes:
ù A wedding commemoration book
ù A quarterly family newsletter 
ù An updated "how to" entrepreneurial booklet for persons with 
disabilities
ù A marketing package for a person in the entertainment business
ù A church history
ù A church anniversary package
ù Various printed pieces for a number of special events
Rose's business is just beginning.  CORE is in its infancy.  But 
creative ventures have to start somewhere.  It is hoped that Rose 
will experience much success and serve s a mentor for future CORE 
participants.
References
Carney, N. C. (1992). Rehabilitation services for people with 
disabilities in rural America. American Rehabilitation, 18(1), 1 
& 47.
Jackson, K. A., et al. (1992). Involving consumers and service 
providers in shaping a rural rehabilitation agenda. American 
Rehabilitation, 18(1), 23-29