In a rocky economy, gainful employment

Jobs for challenged workers to double with $2.5 million extension at Human Resources Center

By TOM KANE

BLOOMING GROVE, PA — Carlos Martinez, a young worker confined to a wheelchair, goes to work every day at the Human Resources Center in Pike County, receives a salary and pays taxes. You can see the pride in his face as he works at his bench.

The center will be expanding its workshop with a new section for a warehouse by means of several grants and capital programs. That will free up the current space, which now doubles as both workspace and warehouse, to be used exclusively for work. With 18 current workers, the center hopes to have a workforce of 36 when the expansion is accomplished.

The section of the building is estimated to cost $2.5 million.

The employees, whom the center terms “consumers,” are all Pike County residents who are working productively despite physical or mental challenges.

“These folks are challenged individuals, yet are doing an essential job, getting paid and contributing to their community,” said Mark Hoover, Human Resources Center (HRC) CEO.

The plan is to construct approximately 16,000 square feet of additional programs, office and warehouse space. “The project will allow HRC to broaden its private sector activities and create jobs,” Hoover said. “The additional space will serve as a place of employment for people who are mentally, physically, economically or educationally disadvantaged.”

The center in Blooming Grove, which is located on the same property as the Pike County Prison, the Office on Aging and the county’s Homeland Security office, is dedicated to training consumers for jobs in the community in a sheltered workshop setting.

“We are currently assembling the packaging for a fuel additive product not unlike STP that is distributed all across North America,” said Lisa Gardner, production manager at the plant.

The work of the center is subcontracted by a company in Stroudsburg called Run-rite, which distributes automobile after-market products, like fuel enhancers and engine cleaners, she said.

Part of the new addition will be shared by Friendship House, a not-for-profit, non-sectarian organization who serves children by means of early intervention programs to help them overcome emotional problems.

Structure of HRC

The Human Resource Center, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation that has been in existence since October of 1973. The agency’s purpose is to afford choices via a menu of support programs that challenge adolescents and adults with disabilities in vocational, residential, community and home settings.

The agency has programs in six counties: Lackawanna, Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike, Carbon and Monroe. Services include group homes, individual living assistance programs, services for individuals with severely challenging disabilities, job training programs and job placement programs to businesses in the community.

Funding for the expansion is being sought from the federal government, the governor’s capitol budget, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED), private sector donors, HRC’s capital campaign and financing from local banks.