“One, two, three, four, five, FIVE BOXES!” yelled out sophomore Matt Hanson at The Elizabeth Richardson Center.
Twelve students participate in a work training program held at the Elizabeth Richardson Center, which began at a church basement in Fayetteville. It was meant to reach out to students and to help with oral skills. The goal is also to improve skills on being able to focus on a one task at a time.
It helps them meet the requirements that they need to be able to reach for a job. It is getting them ready to transition to life after high school.
“The goal here is to get them placed in a job. This is the goal,” said Community Outreach Coordinator Robert Bradley.
The students go to “work” three times a week for two and a half hours. They work on taping boxes, weighing them, counting roll back numbers, while others write down names.
“They love it, they don’t earn much, but they love it,” said resource teacher Michelle White.
They are all assigned to different jobs. Matt Hanson is one of the few who counts roll back numbers for Wal-Mart. This group of students working on roll back numbers counts to 15 and then puts them in a box. When they get five boxes, they yell for the student who is in charge of picking them up.
Some of them are not able to count to 15, so they have their own counter that helps them.
“It’s not the biggest income, but it’s the only job I can have right now,” senior Kenny Morgan who counts the roll back numbers.
Taking the boxes to the next station isn’t their only job. They are also in charge of writing down who finished the boxes they just picked up, because they get paid for each box they finish that week. When the five boxes are delivered to the next station, those students take them and fill up a bigger box, then tape it down, place a sticker on the big box and set it on the side.
Some of them have reached excellence on their job.
This job is not permanent, it is to help them reach a better job. If the students do not have what it takes to make it after high school, the ERC has a program which keeps helping them to improve their skills. The center has been reaching out to students for about 10 years.
