People with disabilities receive hospitality training at Fishers hotel

Amelia Stoller enjoys going to work, organizing her checklist for the day, and helping guests and co-workers at her new job at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Fishers.

Stoller, 28, is one of the first graduates of a Disability Employment Program launched in December through a partnership that includes Invest Hamilton County, Hamilton County Tourism and Noblesville-based not-for-profit Janus Developmental Services Inc.

The program aims to help people with developmental disabilities find work and give Hamilton County’s hospitality industry a boost at a time when finding employees remains a challenge.

“The hotel wins because they get a really capable, talented individual,” Hamilton County Tourism Director Brenda Myers said. “That individual wins because they’re going to be in a supportive environment where they can really thrive. And then the community wins because we have individuals who are able to work and be productive and be part of that whole community workforce.”

Stoller and members of her cohort participated in an eight-week training program at the Hampton Inn. Each person worked with an employment coach from Janus Developmental Services and received training on a variety of operations that included precleaning hotel rooms and deep cleaning other areas of the building.

Two groups of participants have taken part in the program; 11 people have completed it.

“The staff at the hotel was amazing,” said Abbie McIntyre, community supports manager at Janus Developmental Services. “You’re not going to get that everywhere you go. The acceptance and willingness to change the way you describe a job or the way someone does a job. They have been very adaptable.”

Stoller and her co-worker Ethan Vaughn applied to work at the Hampton Inn, while other graduates moved on to other jobs, are continuing to receive vocational rehabilitation or are receiving more job training.

“When we’ve been able to go to the graduation ceremonies for these individuals and see firsthand the sense of reward they get when we give them a certificate of completion and the sense of accomplishment they have, it’s been truly remarkable,” Invest Hamilton County CEO Mike Thibideau said.

Stoller works four days a week and focuses on cleaning and organizing the hotel for guests. She started her job in June.

“It’s been really good,” Stoller said. “If I have the opportunity or someone needs my help, I’ll help them.”

Just getting started

Planning for the disability employment program began in February 2021. The program is the result of a research assessment by Invest Hamilton County and Hamilton County Tourism to study the county’s hospitality workforce needs.

Indiana’s hospitality and leisure workforce has largely recovered this year. According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 316,800 Hoosiers worked in the industry in May. That nearly matched the number from February 2020, a month before the bottom fell out of the industry at the beginning of the pandemic.

However, hoteliers still struggle to fill positions, which indicates a need for creative solutions.

“Downtown, suburban areas, anywhere is having trouble,” said Jason Boyer, general manager of the Hampton Inn & Suites in Fishers.

Along with the Disability Employment Program, Invest Hamilton County and Hamilton County Tourism also began a Hospitality Training Program last year at the Hamilton County Jail to train inmates for hospitality skills they can use after their release.

“Coming out of the pandemic, everyone was short-staffed, especially in front-line workers,” Myers said. “And nowhere was that more obvious than in the hotel business in Hamilton County.”

Initial funding for the Disability Employment Program included $10,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding that was approved by the Hamilton County Commissioners and the Hamilton County Council.

Thibideau said local funds will be used in the future, but getting the program off the ground would not have been possible without the ARPA dollars.

The local tourism industry has appreciated the support of both the county council and county commissioners, Thibideau said. “Their recognition that this industry was hit very, very hard by the pandemic, and that recovery was essential to our local economy, was a really big part of allowing us to have the resources necessary for innovation.”

Additional hotels will offer the program as it expands in the coming year. Collaboration among many stakeholders, not just the disability community and disability providers, made it possible.

“When all of a sudden, everybody is involved in how we can produce effective action for our most disadvantaged residents, we allow ourselves to kind of bridge the gap that wouldn’t otherwise get bridged,” Thibideau said. “These issues are extraordinarily complicated, but all it takes is having the right connections and right knowledge to make them a lot simpler and easier to engage with.”

‘A good opportunity’

While Hamilton County’s Disability Employment Program is unique, it is not the first major initiative in Indiana to help people with disabilities find work in the hospitality industry.

In 2016, The Arc of Indiana opened the Erskine Green Training Institute at the 150-room Courtyard by Marriott in Muncie. The six-story hotel is owned and operated by The Arc and offers nine- to 13-week courses for up to 200 students a year.

Students live on-site and train for a variety of jobs in the hospitality and food-service industries.

The institute is named for former Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine and his wife, Betty, and Indiana University basketball star Steve Green and his wife, Lana. Both couples have children with Down syndrome.

The Hamilton County program and the Erskine Green Training Institute serve to break barriers to employment for people with disabilities that include transportation, job benefits and culture.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 7.6 million people with disabilities were employed in June, the highest mark since June 2008, which is the earliest date for which data is available. Despite that progress, disabled individuals still had only a 23% employment rate in 2022 in Indiana, which trends alongside the national percentage.

Andy Kirby, chief operating officer of The Arc of Indiana, said generations of people with disabilities have not been expected to work. Changing that mindset will be important, he said, as overall life outcomes that include self-sufficiency, financial independence, and health and wellness are improved through work.

“We have to shift our culture and make sure that people with disabilities and their families and their employers know that we should be prioritizing that,” Kirby said.

Stoller’s mother, Selina Stoller, said initiatives like Hamilton County’s are important because they provide meaning and opportunity for people with disabilities to get out into the community, earn money and make friends.

“I think for us as a family, it’s comforting to know that she has a safe place,” Selina Stoller said. “I feel safe in her working here. I feel good about the fact that she’s integrated within society and within Hampton, and they’re providing her with a good opportunity.”

Selina Stoller has served on the Fishers City Council since 2015.

The Hampton Inn & Suites in Fishers is owned by Columbus-based Sprague Hotel Developers, which operates 13 hotels in Indiana. The company has four new hotels in development that are expected to open in the next couple years.

Through Janus Developmental Services, Amelia Stoller has also received assistance with finding housing at South Pointe Village in Fishers. The Hamilton County Express bus system helps with her transportation needs.

Boyer said cleaning positions such as Amelia Stoller’s pay up to $16 per hour, which is more than Stoller made in previous jobs.

Comparatively, according to the 2022 Indiana Day and Employment Services Outcomes System report, people working in sheltered employment earn an average of $3.32 an hour—less than half the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.

“The job is the job, and most of the time, the people that are coming from Janus or another group are trying to prove themselves,” Boyer said. “So why would I pay less?”•