Supervisors eye program to hire people who are developmentally disabled to work in county departments

Excerpts from San Diego Union-Tribune article 

San Diego County departments and offices will be staffed with people who have developmental disabilities under a new program being developed by county staff.

As proposed Tuesday by Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, Jay’s Program would create funding for all county departments and offices to hire people with developmental disabilities. It wasn’t clear in the proposal how many people could be hired, but Fletcher said the move would be an opportunity for the county to set an example for other potential employers, such as businesses, nonprofits and schools, to follow.

The Board of Supervisors offered unanimous support for the proposal during its the meeting Tuesday and directed county staff to move forward developing a finalized version of the program.

Fletcher said he has first-hand knowledge of the value of hiring workers with a developmental disabilities. The most-senior worker on “Team Fletcher,” he said, is Raymond “Jay” Bariuan 35, who has autism.

“I just want folks to know what a positive influence on the team somebody like Jay can be,” Fletcher said in an interview last week. “Jay’s happy every day. Every day, he’s excited about doing the work. Every day when he leaves, he goes and individually says goodbye to everybody here.”

Read the article in its entirety here