In the 1970s, it was virtually unheard of for a person with a disability to be hired and hold a job, according to Georgia Mason, Key Opportunities Program Manager. A local group of parents wanted to change that and give their children with disabilities a chance to reap the rewards of hard work. So, they started Key Opportunities. Today, the nonprofit offers one key to success to Hillsdale residents with disabilities.
“We’re trying to help it just be expected that folks with disabilities certainly have the ability to work and be contributing members of society,” Mason said.
Leaders first named the group Quality Industries, according to Julie Boyce, who has been Key Opportunities’ director for nine years. After a different business with the same name moved into town, the nonprofit adopted the name Key Opportunities.
Key Opportunities initially offered adults with disabilities work experience in a factory setting, according to Mason. Today, the group serves around 120 people with disabilities, offering a variety of programs for both youth and adults.
“We still have our factory setting, but now we have more community-based programs,” Mason said.
Participants make custom palette signs and “fire-starters” in the factory, located at Key Opportunities’ headquarters on Hillsdale Street.
“Our factory has lots of palettes. We cut them down, paint them, and we do stencil designs to make a gift to somebody who wants to buy that. We make a product that’s incredibly popular in this county. It’s called ‘fire starters,’” Mason said. “They’re basically a toilet paper tube with shredded paper dipped in wax. It starts campfires and woodburners and all that without any accelerant and kindling or anything. It’s a really great product.”
Key Opportunities partners with local businesses to provide them with products from the factory, Boyce said.
The group also offers many community programs, including the Culinary and Hospitality Experience/Food Service program, according to Mason. The CHEFS program offers workers experience in the food service industry, such as at the popular restaurant Burgers Unlocked, which closed in 2021.
“Participants were really involved down here running the restaurant,” Mason said. “They made the fries — we have a special fry cutter — out of real potatoes, and we taught them how to weigh and measure the burgers so that we had consistency in our product.”
After learning basic skills, workers are paid minimum wage, Mason said.
Students can earn credit by participating in some of the group’s programs. When participants graduate from the program, Key Opportunities helps them find jobs.
“Some of our participants that used to be in this program and learned about restaurant work are now employed at McDonalds, Dairy Queen, even at Hillsdale College at Bon Appetit,” Mason said.
Key Opportunities offers youth programs through several schools, including some in Hillsdale and Jonesville, Boyce said.
“They would work with Tony, and he actually got hired by The Market House here in Hillsdale,” Jim Swafford, the father of a participant, said.
Swafford’s family has been involved in the program for nearly 10 years. Swafford said his other son, Dakota, took part in the group’s Job Experience Training program and now works at the public library in downtown Hillsdale.
“It keeps the boys engaged in the community,” Swafford said. “They do a lot of great things.”
The group stays involved with participants even after they’ve begun work on their own, Mason said.
“It’s figuring out the balancing act of what the individual would benefit from,” Mason said. “As they don’t need us anymore, we call it ‘fading.’ We ‘fade’ back, but if they need us, we come right back.”
