THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 2, 1996 TAG: 9610020511
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 158 lines
These days, when Tom Stone catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he looks again and wonders, ``It that really you?''
And with good reason. The glass reflects a man far different from the Tom Stone of even five years ago.
A manager for Aramark Inc., Stone is 15 years away from the laborer who also sold guns on the street to live high with his new bride and drive a shiny car that he describes as ``the color of money.''
As a job coach for Hired Hands & Associates, specialists in supported employment rehabilitation, Stone is even further removed from the man who served his first prison term at age 17 and a few years later returned to the streets to use and sell drugs.
For more than 30 years, Stone's roller coaster life careened through three prison terms - on convictions ranging from robbery to drug sales and gun dealing - and several attempts to get off drugs. Finally, as Stone turns 50, he has gotten off the wild ride - with a job, renewed self-respect and a direction for life.
Stone credits his rebirth to an equally reborn faith in God and to the help of Hired Hands & Associates, one of 17 supported-employment providers in Hampton Roads. ``I always wanted to get my life together but did not know how to do it,'' Stone said.
Just out of a year-long, substance-abuse rehabilitation, Stone started as a dishwasher with Aramark's concession operation at Old Dominion University in February 1996. HHA helped him get the job and assigned a job coach to help him through his first few days.
Nancy Tolliver, Stone's first supervisor, remembers, ``I was not familiar with the concept of supported employment, but I was receptive because I have been given many chances myself, and I would like to continue the chain of chances.''
Supported employment can be summed up as intensive assistance to disabled persons in preparation to enter the competitive work world - finding and landing a job, and learning the job with the help of a job coach who works beside new employees until they can handle the duties on their own.
``It is a good back-up,'' Stone said. ``It raises your level of self-esteem to have someone right there saying `You can do it'.''
Tolliver said, ``I could call Hired Hands at any time. We were relieved of the training responsibilities and saved money on that.''
A relatively new concept in vocational rehabilitation, supported employment has grown steadily since its local beginnings in the mid-1980's. John Vaughn , commissioner of the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services, said that of the 24,000 disabled persons served by his agency, 1,800 are being helped through supported employment programs.
Tim Burns and his wife Anna founded Hired Hands & Associates seven years ago. Based in Carrollton, in Isle of Wight County, it works with employers and disabled people throughout the region.
``Most of our customers have a variety of disabilities, physical or mental, but most do not come with a substance abuse problem,'' Tim Burns said.
Stone was an exceptional HHA client in other ways, too. ``I have never met another man like Tom Stone,'' Burns said. ``He is one in a million.''
From dishwasher, Stone quickly moved to bussing to clerking in the storeroom to cashiering to working on the steam line. Soon he was an assistant manager, and now he runs the new pizza concession at ODU.
Stone has also become a job coach for HHA, working with a young man clerking in a Portsmouth pet shop and with a hearing-impaired woman who is starting a food prep job at Aramark.
During his last prison term, Stone completed college courses in business law, marketing, statistics, English and history - with an A average. Next on his list are computer courses that will help him advance with the company.
``I like to take responsibility for things around here,'' Stone said.
``Sometimes I get choked up because my past is something I am not proud of,'' he said. ``I came from a very good background, and I search my heart and mind, asking what made me want to be on the wrong side when I had so much going for me on the right side.''
Stone said he wants to write a book about his life and to somehow work with parents whose children are heading in the wrong direction.
``I think sharing my life will help some other people, too,'' he said. ``In struggling to turn myself around, I have learned to use other people who have done the same thing as an example to lead me to the new me.''
NORFOLK - These days, when Tom Stone catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he looks again and wonders, ``It that really you?''
And with good reason. The glass reflects a man far different from the Tom Stone of even five years ago.
A manager for Aramark Inc., Stone is 15 years away from the laborer who also sold guns on the street to live high with his new bride and drive a shiny car that he describes as ``the color of money.''
As a job coach for Hired Hands & Associates, specialists in supported employment rehabilitation, Stone is even further removed from the man who served his first prison term at age 17 and a few years later returned to the streets to use and sell drugs.
For more than 30 years, Stone's roller coaster life careened through three prison terms - on convictions ranging from robbery to drug sales and gun dealing - and several attempts to get off drugs. Finally, as Stone turns 50, he has gotten off the wild ride - with a job, renewed self-respect and a direction for life.
Stone credits his rebirth to an equally reborn faith in God and to the help of Hired Hands & Associates, one of 17 supported-employment providers in Hampton Roads. ``I alwayswanted to get my life together but did not know how to do it,'' Stone said.
Just out of a year-long, substance-abuse rehabilitation, Stone started as a dishwasher with Aramark's concession operation at Old Dominion University in February 1996. HHA helped him get the job and assigned a job coach to help him through his first few days.
Nancy Tolliver, Stone's first supervisor, remembers, ``I was not familiar with the concept of supported employment, but I was receptive because I have been given many chances myself, and I would like to continue the chain of chances.''
Supported employment can be summed up as intensive assistance to disabled persons in preparation to enter the competitive work world - finding and landing a job, and learning the job with the help of a job coach who works beside new employees until they can handle the duties on their own.
``It is a good back-up,'' Stone said. ``It raises your level of self-esteem to have someone right there saying `You can do it.' ''
Tolliver said, ``I could call Hired Hands at any time. We were relieved of the training responsibilities and saved money on that.''
A relatively new concept in vocational rehabilitation, supported employment has grown steadily since its local beginnings in the mid-1980's. John Vaughn , commissioner of the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services, said that of the 24,000 disabled persons served by his agency, 1,800 are being helped through supported employment programs.
Tim Burns and his wife Anna founded Hired Hands & Associates seven years ago. Based in Carrollton, in Isle of Wight County, it works with employers and disabled people throughout the region.
``Most of our customers have a variety of disabilities, physical or mental, but most do not come with a substance abuse problem,'' Tim Burns said.
Stone was an exceptional HHA client in other ways, too. ``I have never met another man like Tom Stone,'' Burns said. ``He is one in a million.''
From dishwasher, Stone quickly moved to bussing to clerking in the storeroom to cashiering to working on the steam line. Soon he was an assistant manager, and now he runs the new pizza concession at ODU.
Stone has also become a job coach for HHA, working with a young man clerking in a Portsmouth pet shop and with a hearing-impaired woman who is starting a food prep job at Aramark.
During his last prison term, Stone completed college courses in business law, marketing, statistics, English and history - with an A average. Next on his list are computer courses that will help him advance with the company.
``I like to take responsibility for things around here,'' Stone said.
``Sometimes I get choked up because my past is something I am not proud of,'' he said. ``I came from a very good background, and I search my heart and mind, asking what made me want to be on the wrong side when I had so much going for me on the right side.''
Stone said he wants to write a book about his life and to somehow work with parents whose children are heading in the wrong direction.
``I think sharing my life will help some other people, too,'' he said. ``In struggling to turn myself around, I have learned to use other people who have done the same thing as an example to lead me to the new me.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Tom Stone
Graphic
SUPPORTED EMPLOYMENT
For more information on supported employment programs, call the
closest office of the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative
Services:
Portsmouth, 396-6875
Norfolk, 858-6710
Both include TDD.
Virginia Beach, 552-1860
Regional office, 858-6750
For more information on Hired Hands & Associates, call 238-9400. by CNB