Tell us about Opportunity Enterprises - What is the mission of the organiation?
Opportunity Enterprises has been the 9th largest employer in Porter County for a number of years now. We have about 420 staff members. It’s an eight million dollar payroll and a fifteen million dollar a year company. Those payroll dollars are being spent right here in our community, as is the dollars that the clients are making. In my mind it’s a huge impact to the quality of life for everybody here in Porter County.
The point of OE is to provide three basic services to a challenged individual.
1) Transportation - We move them around all day long.
2) Residential Services - We have group homes/apartments, and
3) Day Services - That is what is going on now - today - at 2801 Evans and at our Lakeside facility. We have contracts with a number of companies. Typically hand manipulated, packaging, rework... and this is piece-count typically that a client can do sitting at a table during a work day. They get paid per pieces. They also have enrichment.
An enrichment could be CI, Community Integration. This is where the client days ‘You know, the community is doing so much for me, I want to give back and do something for the community.’ They may go to Tall Tree and pull weeds. They may go to some of our customers and pick up already shredded paper. The other enrichment is Assistive Technology. This is computer work. Here we have some clients that may just be learning how to count money. Certainly learning how to use email, to search their favorite Nascar driver or a country Western singer. The things is, we teach them those things in our facility, with our instructors, and then they can go home and enrich their own lives and maybe even show their own parents ‘this is how you do this.’.
It’s really neat stuff. Lastly would be our Art Department. Our Art Department is making great pieces of canvas art, ceramics and most recently we’ve got a glass kiln. So we are looking for exotic bottles, making glass pieces... and every one of those art pieces has a client name attached to it. They get paid. It’s a wage earning proposition for a client and for us. It’s a very neat situation. That’s Day Services.
What do you think is OE's biggest benefit to the community?
The real bang in my mind for the community’s buck, if you will, is that their parent - mom, dad, caregiver, brother or sister - is able to go off and do a job like you and me and also earn money. Otherwise they may be home watching over their challenged son or daughter. In this case, we do it. We do it well. We do it as efficiently as anybody could ask for. There’s also the social aspect of it too. They have girlfriends, boyfriends, just like we want to have. They have great fun. We have client dances. There certainly is a social aspect to it that if they were not coming into our services or some service provider, they would be very lonely people at home.
What are some things we can look forward to from Opportunity Enterprises?
Going forward, the newest thing that has just popped on the radar screen is our Job Source Division. Kathy Savage and her team is doing a tremendous job there. We have just opened up a LaPorte County office. Again, it’s all about getting individuals back in the workforce.
That is certainly one of the big things on our radar screen. Our Lakeside is also huge. We’re investing almost four million dollars out there into a new Day Services building. We have thirteen thousand square feet out there now. We’re building another around twenty six thousand square foot building which will be two levels with a walk out, the lower level, to the lake.
We are building the first of our apartment buildings. Those are eight three-bedroom apartments. We have floating fishing piers out there. Last summer we had two boats out on the water. We’ve got a great shelter that Rotary helped us put up - a thirty foot by sixty foot shelter. It’s a great environment and it will be a great location for challenged individuals from certainly throughout the region.
I think if more people would get engaged with Opportunity Enterprises or a like service provided and realize a little more about that population, they would be happier individuals themselves.