In a time when many employers bemoan a lack of work ethic and people skills in young workers, Peter Echeverio, sous chef at the New Seasons Market at Fisher’s Landing, has discovered a real gem – a young man named Clinton Cotton.
Clinton, one of 150 people hired during New Seasons’ Vancouver job fair in September, is a participant in the employment services program run by Innovative Services NW, a Vancouver-based nonprofit that offers services for the disabled.
“Clinton has a personality that is infectious and bubbling,” said Echeverio. “Having him become a part of our kitchen is very gratifying.”
Colleen Estlick, Cotton’s job coach at Innovative Services NW, said that Clinton “loves washing dishes” and that the job at New Seasons “fits his personality and the personality at New Seasons.”
While attending Columbia River High School, Cotton, who has developmental disabilities, worked as a kitchen assistant. He also volunteers at Vancouver’s FISH food bank with his father. Now that he is working at New Seasons, he continues to do what he loves – washing dishes – as well as light food prep and putting things away.
“He’ll do anything you ask him to do,” said Echeverio. “He does a great job of listening and following directions.”
More important than being a good dish washer, Echeverio said, is that Cotton is a “good springboard for people who get stressed out” in the busy kitchen environment. Danielle Halstead, store manager at New Seasons Fisher’s Landing, said “you can always hear Clinton laughing,” and that he “makes everyone around him not take themselves so seriously and reminds everyone to slow down and laugh.”
Halstead said the Fisher’s Landing store also employs a profoundly deaf employee, Quinn Claypoole, a graduate of the Vancouver School for the Deaf. She said that Claypoole has taught other employees how to communicate more effectively with hearing-impaired customers, and will soon be teaching a sign-language class for store employees.
Working with programs like Innovative Services NW is part of the overall New Seasons philosophy of being an integral part of the community, according to Claudia Knotek, community relations manager for the market. Knotek also said the company donates ten percent of their after-tax profits to local charities. For example, the Fisher’s Landing store partners with Loaves and Fishes as well as several local school districts.
“Our main focus is hunger,” said Knotek. “We’re a grocery store, and we want to ensure people in our community are getting enough to eat.”
New Seasons is not the only local firm to employ participants in Innovative Services NW’s employment program, which currently has about 40 participants. Estlick said that other employers include First Aid Only, C-TRAN, Clark County Public Works and Deja Vu Consignment Clothing.
As a job coach, explained Estlick, one of the high points of her job is watching participants get their first paycheck. And, like Cotton, it’s seeing them being treated by co-workers more as a person than as someone who is disabled.
