I know i cant do full time or part time work due to stress of sz…but i was wondering do you know anything about sheltered employment or supported employment
Yes. I worked in a sheltered workshop for several years. You won’t earn much money but it will give you something to do and a reference for future work.
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How much roughly would you earn per hour and does it affect your disability payment. Also what type of work is it
Usually it’s piece work at a piece rate. I can’t remember how many days a week I worked there to tell you anything accurate about how much I earned. If you are on SSI, they will deduct after you earn so much If you are on disability, they don’t deduct. That’s how it was 15 years ago. My biweekly check wasn’t ever more than $50. Usually it was around $20.If you’re slow, it’s even less.
I worked in two types of sheltered employment. Two times I was in a vocational program. The idea was to prepare the disabled to get back to work so they held classes and workshops on “how to fill out a job application”, “how to interview”, “how to apply for jobs”, and other job related subjects. There was also a social aspect to the programs where we had social groups.
And also at both programs they had ways to earn money.
In one program a couple counselors would take out a small crew to do yard work at private homes we had a contract with in the community. We would load up some tools in a van and drive to a house and mow the lawn, rake, weed, clip hedges, sweep etc. All the money we earned would go in a fund and once a month we would take the money and go on an outing. We might have a picnic at the beach or go to a museum or go out to eat in a fancy restaurant. The other thing both programs did was contract with the post office to do making projects. We would collate, fold flyers, stuff envelopes, put postage on envelopes. We would make like 3 cents an envelope so you could make a few bucks a day. This was done on the premises.
The other sheltered employment was more like real employment. It was sheltered but it was a business. We had contracts with real, important businesses to do postal work for them. We might put stickers on flyers or fold flyers and put them in envelopes. It was a lot of the same stuff as the other sheltered employment but since the bosses had contracts with big, important businesses we got paid a lot more. How much you got paid depended on how fast you were. I could make $25-$30 a day. I was actually supporting myself this way.
We worked in a big room and the atmosphere was pretty loose. You could talk a little and the bosses weren’t watching over us and hounding us.
This same company also had contracts to do janitorial work with the Army reserve which is how I started my current janitor job 10 years ago. We had all our own equipment and we meet each morning at the army reserve office building and vacuum, clean restrooms, empty wastebaskets and other things. It’s a real job but the company that hires me hires veterans and disabled people and we often get extra breaks and don’t get pushed too hard.
I just stumbled upon these places, I don’t know how you would go about finding places like these except to perhaps ask around at your clinic or ask your case worker or therapist.
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I briefly was involved in it at a psychiatric hospital. They paid 4 dollars an hour.
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