chicago tribune article - have dreams academy december 2014
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Monday, December 29, 2014
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MUMBAI, India — In-vestigators confronted an-other midair mystery inthe stormy waters ofSoutheast Asia as thesearch resumed Mondayfor a missing airliner car-rying 162 people that im-mediately stirred memo-ries of two ill-fatedMalay-sian airplanes earlier thisyear.
This time, officialsweremore confident of findingIndonesia AirAsia Flight8501, which lost contactwith air traffic controllersSunday after encounter-ing rough weather duringa two-hour flight to Singa-pore.
As severe monsoonrains lash the region, In-donesian, Malaysian andSingaporeanshipsandair-craft were focusing thesearch in the Java Sea offthe island of east Belitung,roughly halfway betweenSingapore and the air-craft’s point of origin, theIndonesian city of Suraba-ya, Indonesian news me-dia reported.
“God willing, we canfind it soon,” 1stAdm. SigitSetiayana, the naval avia-tion center commander atthe Surabaya air forcebase, told The Associated
Press.Setiayana said that 12
navy ships, five planes,three helicopters and sev-eral warships had joinedthe effort Monday, ac-cording to the AP. Thesearch was halted due todarkness Sunday evening,12 hours after the planelost contact with theground, as teams facedlow visibility due to poorweather conditions.
Among the 155 pas-sengers were 17 childrenand one infant, accordingto an updated statementfrom AirAsia. The planewas also carrying two pi-lots, fourcabincrewmem-bers and an engineer, air-
Storms lashcrews inhunt for jetFocus is on Java Sea as anothermystery rattles Southeast AsiaBy Shashank BengaliTribune Newspapers
A relative faces a grimwait Sunday at JuandaInternational Airport inSurabaya, Indonesia.
TRISNADI/AP
Turn to Plane, Page 10TheBears staggered across the finish lineSundaywith their fifth consecutive loss,still dancing around explanations forwhythe offensewas so inefficient during a 5-11season. After the game, coachMarcTrest-man said he expected to be back in 2015,
but uncertainty surrounds his futureand those of generalmanager PhilEmery and quarterback JayCutler.A decision onTrestman is expectedMonday,with sweeping changes beingdiscussed. Chicago Sports
Quarterback Jay Cutler leaves the field after the Bears’ 13-9 loss to the Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
STACEY WESCOTT/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
ONE FOR THE ROAD?Another loss brings an end to the Bears’ miserable 2014 seasonas questions swirl regarding future of Trestman, Emery, Cutler
VIKINGS 13,BEARS 9
DrewMcDonoughwalksquickly past the 50-poundbags of brown sugar and thehuge tubs of chocolatefrosting. He takes a secondto clock in at a computer,dresses inhisbakeryclothes(hairnet, work shirt, apron)and then speed-walkstoward the stainless steeltable where, five days aweek, he packages cups ofsticky toffee pudding.
When his boss inquiresabout his weekend,McDonough responds withbrisk one-word answersand barely makes eye con-tact. But that is fine withJean Kroll, owner of theSugar & Spice Extraordi-nary Sweet Treats commer-cial bakery in Evanston,who simply points her newhire toward the racks ofgolden brown cakes.
“We have 800,” she says.“Can you start by dating the
sleeves and then gettingsomeboxes?”
For the rest of the four-hour shift on this coldDecember afternoon, thequiet, dark-haired 27-year-old moves so quickly heseems set on fast-forward.Heboxescakes, stacks themon a hand cart, labels themforshipmentand,whenhe’sdone, carefully sweeps thefloor.
McDonough has autism.The fact that he also has ajob at the bakery is some-
thing that he says is “prob-ably amiracle.”
“I’m working 20 hours aweek,whichmyparents arevery happy about,” he said.“It feels as happy as can be.”
This past summer,McDonough and two othermen with autism arrived atthe bakery as part of asix-weekunpaid internship.But there was one impor-tant twist: As the menlearned to measure sugar
Hiring autistic workersa sweet deal for everyone
Drew McDonough is one of three men with autism workingat Sugar & Spice Extraordinary Sweet Treats in Evanston.
NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Bakery trains 3 menout of goodwill andgood business senseBy ColleenMastonyTribune reporter
Turn to Bakery, Page 6
When he was diag-nosed with renal diseasealmost twoyears ago,Gus-tavo Galvez had neverheard of dialysis. DoctorstoldGalvez,whohadbeenworking in the UnitedStates 17 years withoutlegal residency, that itwould help his failing kid-neys function and enablehim to live.
“But after one month,twomonths, I learned,andI did not like it,” saidGalvez, 35. “I did notwantdialysis.”
After each treatment hefelt dizzy, nauseated, tiredand achy, he said. Theexcruciating routine de-pressed him, but he hopesthe painwill soon end.
A new state lawwill forthe first time providefunding for kidney trans-plants for immigrants inIllinois without legal per-mission, as well as theannual medicationsneeded to maintain the
transplanted organs.With the state’s help,
Galvezmay finally get onawaiting list for a trans-plant. That has changedhis outlook on his life. “Ifelt that there was hope,”he said.
Since the law went intoeffect in October, trans-plant centers in Illinoishave been evaluatingsome of the 686 immi-grants here illegally in thestate’s kidney dialysis pro-gram to see whether theyare healthy enough to re-ceive kidney transplantsand placing some ontransplantwaiting lists.
Those opposed tospending tax dollars onsuch immigrants, howev-er, say the program willunfairly saddle legal citi-zens with health costsbetter spent on Ameri-cans. Even proponents ofthe program worry thatsuch immigrants fromotherstatesmaytry totakeadvantage of Illinois’ newprogram, which couldheavily inflate costs.
While a representativefor the federal Medicaidoffice said it doesnot trackrelated laws in other
New immigrantorgan transplantlaw to serve as testIllinois to coverpatients livingin state illegallyByMeredithRodriguezTribune reporter
Turn to Transplant, Page 7
Food-makers are re-sponding to consumers’healthy eating choices,grocerieswill becomemore like restaurantsand restaurantswillembrace technology in2015.Business
BAY AREA NEWS GROUP
Food industrytrends for 2015
RexW.Huppke asksfolkswhohave appearedin his columns to sharetheir advice forworkers,bosses andmanagers asthey head into the newyear.Business
A collection ofoffice advice forthe year ahead
CHICAGO’S TOP CELEBRITY HANGOUTSForget partying like a rock star. Partywith a rock star. Luis Gomez shares the city’s best spots. A+E
ChicagoWeatherCenter: Completeforecast on back page of A+E sectionTom Skilling’s forecast High31 Low19
6 Chicago Tribune | Section 1 | Monday, December 29, 2014
“We need to help businessowners understand, like Jeandoes, that there is an economicbenefit to employing this popula-tion. This is not just a feel-goodstory,” said McCain, of the Cole-man Foundation. “Think of howmany manufactures there are inChicago who have some discreet,repetitive tasks that need to bedone and that might be well-suited to the folks at HaveDreams.”
AsMcDonough’s shift comes toan end on that recent Decemberday, he carefully affixes a toffee-colored label to each of the 67boxes of cakes that he packagedfor shipment. He grabs a broomand sweeps up the bits of short-bread and the sprinkling of cocoapowder that had fallen here andthere on the bakery floor.
When the clock hands pointtoward 4 o’clock — the end of hisshift—he approachesKroll. “Thisarea is swept,” he says.
“Very good. Want to say good-bye to theother guys?” she replies.(Kroll is still trying to help himwith social skills.)
McDonough walks a fast looparound the bakery with his handup in a perfunctory wave. “Seeyou,” he says flatly to each personhe passes. Then he clocks out atthe computer, exchanges hisapron for his jacket and stridesquickly to the door.
As he rushes past Kroll, hebarely looks up.
“Bye,” he says.“Thank you,Drew!”Kroll calls.Afterward, Kroll stands in the
bakery, an apron around herwaistandapileoforders inherhand. “Itwas a great day. A really nice,regular day,” she says. McDon-ough had worked independently,taken ownership of his task andcleaned up afterward. “He hasgrown somuch.”
What’s more, she says, he hascarried his weight and helped herbusiness grow. As he developsmore skills, she says, he’ll earnwage increases, “just likeeveryoneelse.”
“This is a good business deci-sion,” she says. “It just so happensthat it’s also a really good socialdecision and a good moral deci-sion too.”
[email protected]@cmastony
and package cakes, a graduatestudent from Northwestern Uni-versity’s Kellogg School of Man-agement carefully tracked theirproductivity. The question: Did itmake good business sense to hiresomeonewith a disability?
For Kroll, a 50-year-old entre-preneur who had plowed her lifesavings into the bakery, that was acritical question.
“Small businesses hire basedoneconomics,”Kroll said. “Mostofusare not big enough to hire basedon a philanthropic approach.”
Thestoryofhow—at theendofthe internship — she offered paidpositions to McDonough and twoother men with autism is one ofluck and goodwill. But it is also,according to Kroll, a story of aclear-eyed business decision.
“People always say, ‘That’s sucha nice thing to do,’ ” said Kroll,referring to her decision to hirethe men. “I say, ‘Yes, it is nice. Butit’s also a smart thing to do.’ ”
Two years ago, Kroll movedhercommercial bakery into a 10,000-square-foot facility tucked in anindustrial strip off Dempster Ave-nue. A few doors down was anonprofit called Have Dreams,which provides services to peoplewith autism.
Shortly after the move, Kroll’slandlord mentioned that her newneighbors — the men and womenwith autism — were alwayslooking for job training.
“Maybe they could help youbuild boxes,” the landlord sug-gested.
Soonafter,Kroll invitedagroupof five men with autism to helpher construct and label boxes forher chocolate chip, oatmeal raisinand signature shortbread cookies.She had no experience with peo-ple with disabilities. But when ayoungmanput togetheraboxand,with a huge grin, declared: “Lookwhat I did!”Krollwas charmed.
For a year and a half, the mencame everyweek.
There was a tall, blond-hairedman named Zach, who loved totalk and ask questions, and Mi-chael, who was playful andcracked jokes, and Jimmy, whowas so focused that he could labelboxes as fast as anyworker.
“They came every week andwere smiling and enthusiastic,”Kroll recalled. “My staff reallywarmed to them too.”
One day, an administrator atHave Dreams asked if Kroll mighthave other jobs for themen.
Kroll’s answer was firm andimmediate.
“No,” she said.After shewenthome that night,
she couldn’t stop thinking aboutwhat she had said.
“I was so angry with myself,”she recalled. “They were such agreat group of young people.”
Around that time, Kroll hadbegun negotiations with a clientwhose line of baked goods wouldrequire labor-intensive packaging.The work could have been auto-mated, but Kroll didn’t have the$80,000 she estimated it wouldcost to buy the equipment.
She thought of the men fromHave Dreams and picked up thephone.
“I think I might have a job forthe guys,” she said.
Over the following weeks,Kroll and a team from HaveDreams came up with a plan toestablish a job training programatthebakeryandeventually landeda$125,000 grant from the Chicago-based Coleman Foundation. Themoney came with a unique pre-requisite: It required HaveDreams to hire a Master ofBusiness Administration studentto collect data on the men’sproductivity.
“What we saw was the oppor-tunity to build a business case,”said Clark McCain, senior pro-gramofficerat theColemanFoun-dation. “That’s a language thatother business ownerswill be ableto understand.” If the bakeryprogram succeeded, the datacould be used to persuade otherbusiness to hire people withdisabilities.
The six-week training programtargeted high-functioning peoplewith autism who had completedhigh school or college but whohad trouble keeping a job. Thegoal was to teach not only jobskills but also softer skills such asinitiative, independence and com-munication that are often the keyto employment.
On June 24, three men arrivedat the bakery, where the air isheavy with the scent of bakingchocolate and where racks ofginger cakes spin in industrial-sized convection ovens.
One man was so nervous hishands shook. A second arrived
late. The third, when the workbegan,moved as slow asmolasses.
“I remember thinking, ‘Oh myGod, nowwhat?’ ” Kroll recalled.
In those first weeks, the men’spresence was undeniably disrup-tive. With two job coaches, theNorthwestern student and Krollin tow, they created what Krollrecalled as a “small circle ofchaos” that moved around thebakery. The 10 other employeeswere, at first, confused about themen’s role. They wanted to know:Why were the men there? Andwhat, exactly,was autism?
Kroll reassured her staff as bestshe could and set about trainingher new interns.
The firstweek, themenworkedalone, learning how to measuresugar and package cakes. By thethird week, they attempted towork as a team — a challenge formanywith autism.
Slowly, the men grew morecomfortable. The job coachesstepped away and allowed eachman to take a turn as team leader.
“We set the bar low for some ofthe productivity tests, and wewere getting low results,” Krollrecalled. “So I said, ‘I am going toraise the bar really high.’ And theymet that goal. So I raised the baragain, and theymet it again.”
One afternoon, Kroll turned toher productionmanager and said:“Did you notice the guys proc-essed 500 cakes today?” Themanager —who had been slow tobuy in to the effort — gave a smallsmile and a nod of approval.
By the end of the sixweeks, themetrics that tracked the men’s
productivity for portioning sugar,labeling boxes and dating cakesshowed that they could workabout 80 percent as quickly as atypical bakery worker. For Kroll,that was a break-even point thatmeant itwouldmake sense to hirethem for an entry-level, mini-mum-wage position and allowmore experienced, higher-paidworkers to focusonmorecomplextasks.
When an official from theColeman Foundation visited in
August, Drew McDonough —whose hands used to shake —proudly gave a tour of the bakery.Thenhe joined theothermenonasmall assembly line.
“They worked together with-out a coach and did a wonderfuljob,” recalled Kroll. “Everyonelooked at each other, andwewereall thinking, ‘This works. Thismakes sense.’ ”
The bakery was about to enterthe busy holiday season. “I startedthinking, ‘I’m going to be reallybusy going into the fall. I’m goingto need these guys,’ ” Kroll said.
A few days later, she offeredeach of the men a Christmas-season position that would pay
them$8.25 an hour.
Now, Drew McDonough spendshis days amid the industrial-sizekettles that gently simmer with40-gallonbatchesofbuttery toffeesauce.
Having a job, he said, “feelsfabulous. Not just for me but formy parents as well. They weresometimes frustrated with what Iwas going through, with the jobhunt.”
After graduating from LorasCollege in Dubuque, Iowa, with adegree in media studies in 2011,McDonoughsearched for a job fortwo years before he learned aboutHaveDreams.
He and the other men havedone so well at the bakery thatKroll agreed to have a class ofthree more interns start in Janu-ary. McDonough will continue towork 20 hours a week and alsoserve as a mentor. Training thenewest workers is something thatMcDonough admits “may be a bitof a challenge.”
But that’s OK with Kroll. “I’mglad he’s nervous,” she said. “Wewant to push them past theircomfort zone because we knowwhen they’re in another employ-ment setting, they’re going to bepushed. We want to help themwork through those stresses rightnow, and then be able to step upanddo the job.”
Kroll can’t staff her bakeryentirely with people with autism.So administrators atHaveDreamsare searching for other businesseswhere graduates of the bakeryprogramcanwork.
Sugar & Spice Extraordinary Sweet Treats owner Jean Kroll, right, took a chance on Drew McDonough, who works 20 hours a week at her bakery.
NANCY STONE/CHICAGO TRIBUNE PHOTOS
Drew McDonough, center, is able to work on his social skills with co-workers at Sugar & Spice bakery.
Drew McDonough’s productivity is monitored. The data may be used to help others with autism land jobs.
32.6%
OCCUPATION BY PERCENTAGEWith types of jobs includedin each category
Therewere 5.1million peoplewith disabilities, 16 and older,whowere employed in 2013.
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics TRIBUNE
Workerswithdisabilities
Management, professionalIncludes business,computer, architecture,social sciences, educationand arts jobs.
23.4% Sales, officeIncludes sales and officesupport jobs.
20% ServiceIncludes health care,restaurant, building andgrounds maintenance jobs.
15.1%
Includes moving jobs.Production, transportation
8.9%Construction,maintenance, outdoorsIncludes farming, fishing,construction and mainte-nance jobs.
Bakery’sgoodwillis also agood dealBakery, from Page 1
“It is nice. Butit’s also a smartthing to do.”— Jean Kroll, on her decision tohire workers with autism