Chehalis Organization Provides Services for Adults with Disabilities

For nearly 50 years, Lewis County Work Opportunities (LCWO) has provided services to adults with disabilities that help them develop skills and find jobs. Executive director Greg Martin said the organization has slowly been expanding since it began in 1971.

“Over the last ten years, we’ve had several hundred people that we’ve worked with and placed into community and jobs, whether it be a few hours a week or full time,” Martin said.

There are a variety of jobs that people move on to who are trained at LCWO, including secretarial, janitorial and factory work. LCWO works with businesses in the area where they can help train clients and develop job skills onsite. 

LCWO employee Diane Maurice works with clients to help them find jobs and sometimes build their own businesses. Clients that LCWO works with often keep the jobs they find for many years, Maurice said. Currently, she is helping a client with a dog walking business.

“We look at all of their needs and we try to find the best jobs that fit them, instead of trying to make them fit the job,” she said. 

The organization works with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) and the Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) to provide services to their clients. LCWO is also an accredited community rehabilitation program, and Maurice said she hopes that they can continue to raise awareness of the services they provide.

Along with skill training, LCWO also provides community inclusion, ways to involve their clients in the community, like going to the movies. Some of their clients struggle to find jobs, so LCWO works to involve them in the community, Maurice said.

“The mission then, and the mission now, is to help the adults with disabilities in Lewis County be able to find their place in our community,” Martin said. “(We) develop the work skills they need to find employment.”

LCWO has two offices, one for helping people find work and one for training. Martin said they are also planning to build a new training building once LCWO has the funding. 

The clients at LCWO produce wood products as a means to eventually find work, Martin said. At the training location, there are furniture products made including desks, tables and dressers as well as industrial items like wheel chocks and boxes.

The items made at LCWO are showcased and sold at multiple events throughout the year including a home and garden show, the garlic festival and the LCWO annual auction. All of the items they create are custom-made and all the proceeds from items they sell are used to further the LCWO mission, Martin said.

“We’re continuing to grow and find new ways to earn income because we don’t depend on grants for what we do,” Martin said. “Most of what we do is from earned income.”

The more money LCWO raises through fundraisers, the more things they can do with their clients to enrich the clients’ lives, Maurice said. 

“There are way more benefits to having an adult with a disability come to work at your facility because they stay there forever and become a part of your family,” she said.