October 23, 2024
Perelandra Honored as “Employer of the Year”
We are excited to share some wonderful and humbling news with you.
On Wednesday, October 2nd, Perelandra was presented with the “Employer of the Year” Award from the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired!
This is a state agency dedicated to providing services and resources which empower Virginians who are blind, vision impaired or deafblind to achieve their desired levels of employment, education and personal independence.
The event, “Celebrating Ability in the Workplace” included other awards recognizing individuals who had excelled in their employment, education achievements and mentoring, and agencies who help find employment for folks who are blind, deafblind or vision impaired.
It honored CVS Corporation for their diversity in hiring programs and training. Then CVS honored DBVI right back with a grant to build a new center for job training! It was a privilege to be invited and to share in this celebration.
A little background:
We first partnered with DBVI in June of 2023, after being contacted by a local placement agency who was aware that Perelandra employs folks with varying disabilities — and varying abilities! They asked if we would consider hiring someone who is deafblind. We didn’t just “consider.”
After meeting Claudia and inviting her to work with us for a few months, we made one of our best hiring decisions ever.
DBVI provided wonderful support for us and Claudia, ensuring we had the resources we needed to be able to communicate well and that Claudia had what she needed for our work environment.
Accepting the award on behalf of Perelandra, Jeannette said this:
I am humbled and honored to accept this award on behalf of our entire Perelandra team. But this award belongs to more than Perelandra. We could not have imagined the possibilities for including a staff member with vision and hearing impairments without the encouragement and optimism of Ann at Career Support Systems. We were able to be successful because of the support from Ann, LaSonya at DBVI, the interpreters who put us at ease, provided a bridge and gave us confidence and Jack who provided the technology and personal guidance to smooth our communications and share his unique perspective and humor. All of you have broadened our understanding of language and communication. And who in this world can't benefit from that?
Claudia's patience with us seems to have no end. And her determination to teach us how to communicate effectively, while keeping it light with her grand sense of humor, has brightened our work together. The Perelandra staff were open to working in new ways, they were willing to stretch a little in their own roles and work and had to learn new ways of teaching the jobs and I'm grateful to them — especially Olivia, Dianne, Amy and Brenda. And we are all grateful to Claudia's husband, Peter who keeps us on our toes, and is as invested in our success as anyone on our team.
But back to Claudia — This award is a testament to who she is and what she has brought to Perelandra. She has added a life of experience figuring out how to successfully navigate a sound and sight dominant culture. She brought her intelligence, her life experience, her determination, enthusiasm and humor. And we are all the better for it. Our jobs at Perelandra all require accuracy and precision. Claudia teaches us there is more than one way to achieve accuracy and high quality work.
This should not be an exceptional thing — I look forward to the day we are not deemed award-worthy for welcoming talented people who move through the world in ways that we may not be familiar with, who communicate in a language we may not yet have experienced, whose life experiences differ from ours simply because their sensory system processes the world differently or their body moves in a way ours doesn't. Or their brain takes in and puts out differently.
When we embrace the qualities we each have — those qualities that make us stand out from the crowd — and when we seek out the unique perspective and abilities of others that differ from our own, we will find a stronger, better, more capable team and a more successful business. And we'll just be better people.
That we are all here today at this event is proof diversity is to be celebrated and aspired to, talked about and set into action and insisted upon until the day everyone realizes diversity is the key to thriving.
Thank you all for being committed to breaking down barriers by connecting us to one another and showing us new possibilities.
A note of encouragement for you:
One reason we're sharing this with all of you is that we hope you will consider broadening the diversity in your workplace or business. You may not know this — for nearly 30 years, Perelandra has partnered with our local Community Services Board and with private organizations to hire staff with autism, brain injuries, cerebral palsy and those recovering from serious injuries. You see, Machaelle has always understood the value of diversity — in every kind of garden.
Here in Virginia, only 1% of deafblind individuals have a job, about 33% of folks who are deaf or hard of hearing were hired in their field of education, and half are working but not in their desired career. Please do a little homework to find your local and state agencies that help those who wish to find rewarding employment and just need a little support to get there. Then talk with your HR department or your friends who work in HR, about the opportunities for hiring committed and talented individuals.
If you own a small business, reach out to organizations in your community to hire people you might not have considered before. We know the community programs and agencies will be thrilled you did. And we also know you are not going to regret making this kind of move to be more inclusive. Everybody wins.
