Teressa & Tonya Visit EACH & Knoxbrooke, Inc.

Sunday, March 16, 2014 – 11:50 a.m. Geelong time (on the road to Mt. Waverly)

By Teressa Jackson

Tonya and I spent a vocational day together on Friday. We began our day at Eastern Access Community Health (EACH), a not-for-profit providing care to a variety of constituents including early intervention and kindergarten (preschool) for children; drug and alcohol, financial, gambling, and bush fire recovery counseling; employment placement for people with mental illness and intellectual disabilities, and much more.

Through mergers, EACH has grown substantially over the past several years, to a budget size of around $45 million today. Like most of the disability services we’ve visited, they are transitioning to Individual Support Packages (ISPs) focused on providing more choice for participants in directing their care.

After EACH, Russell, our morning driver, took us to Knoxbrooke, Inc., where Margi, our afternoon host, was waiting. Knoxbrooke has a variety of services, and the site we visited provides employment for 85 individuals with disabilities and 36 non-disabled staff in the setting of a nursery and gardening center. They have a large commercial operation with 200 customers and a sales team that works to connect the program with national buyers.

Individuals with disabilities who work at Knoxbrooke are paid a productivity-based wage based on an assessment done by the Commonwealth (federal government). The average productivity rate of an employee is 25%, and individuals can earn around $180 per week before they begin to put their other disability benefits in jeopardy. Most individuals with disabilities work around 18 hours per week. In addition to employment, participants receive training on horticulture. 

The weather has had a drastic impact on Knoxbrooke’s horticulture operation, but thankfully they have been able to increase sales by 32% over last year. Overall, their budget is around 30% government and 70% commercial.

Like Rauch and New Hope Services, Knoxbrooke was begun by parents of children with disabilities, and has grown from there. As a smaller size organization, operations have become increasingly difficult in recent years, and they have persevered as many agencies have merged and consolidated.

I especially enjoyed a bit of teasing I witnessed between the horticulture program director and a participant. The participant was looking forward to the impending start of the Australian Rules Football season, and the two were obviously cheering for opposing teams. It was an interaction I have witnessed at my place of employment so many times, the only difference being the sport. We truly are more similar than we are different.