VR counselor guides Rock Hill man toward employment success
Vickie Manning and R.J. Lewis have a history that goes back almost 20 years.
Beginning in 1990, when R.J. needed training for employment, he came to Vickie, who is the office coordinator in SCVRD’s Lancaster office and carries the Chester County caseload. Vickie has provided extensive counseling and guidance through the years while allowing R.J. to choose his own course.
“He’s always sought non-traditional employment for someone in a wheelchair,” she said. “He’s great at advocating for himself.”
Several attempts at self-employment didn’t work out and when R.J. came to Vickie most recently in 2007, he was looking for work in a warehouse. He had earned his G.E.D. with VR and got his forklift license while at the work training center in Rock Hill.
His son, who delivers furniture for La-Z-Boy’s distribution center in Richburg, suggested his father apply for a position there as a repair technician.
Tom Mayne, who was community work incentives coordinator at the time, counseled R.J. about how going to work would affect his SSDI benefits.
“He was concerned about medical insurance,” Tom said. “I did a benefits analysis and we discussed work incentives.”
R.J. needed training and VR again stepped in, paying for a three-day class through Mohawk Finishing Products in Knoxville, Tenn., a leather care, touch-up and repair class in Decatur Ga., and journeyman and master’s classes at La-Z-Boy in Dayton, Tenn.
He earned his certification as a master service technician and works four days a week repairing, assembling and inspecting furniture that comes through the distribution center. It’s a job he hopes to retire from. In his spare time, he’s started his own business—Lewis Furniture Touch-Up and Repair.
R.J. cannot say enough about VR.
“Everybody [at VR] is 100 percent nice,” he said. “They’re there to help.
“Anybody who tries VR and doesn’t get help expects somebody else to do it for them. If you take the step yourself, VR will help.”
And he’s been an ambassador for people with disabilities in the workplace.
Mike Floyd, chief operating officer at the La-Z-Boy distribution center, said that although R.J. is the first person with a disability he’s had the opportunity to hire, “if I could find others like R.J., I’d hire them in a minute.”
What has he learned about people with disabilities?
“Don’t prejudge. Listen and let them show you what they can do,” he said.