EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Every October, the U.S. Department of Labor promoted Disability Employment Awareness Month, a time to celebrate the value workers with disabilities add to the country’s workplaces and economy.

People living with disabilities account for about 4% of employed Americans, and they tend to earn less than those who don’t have a disability. 

On this week’s “In Focus SoCal,” host Tanya McRae visits Desert Haven Enterprises, an organization that is dedicated to helping people with developmental disabilities gain work experience through specialized training and maintain competitively paid employment. 

Michael Jeffries was unable to secure employment because of a disorder that caused uncontrollable seizures.

“I was just a little scared because I didn’t know how people would take it. If I had a seizure, would they make fun of me or talk about me?” Jeffries said. 

He turned to Desert Haven eight years ago, and was eventually hired as a staff employee doing janitorial and maintenance work. He said the job has given him a new outlook on life and that he has not had a seizure in four years.

A crucial service that Desert Haven provides is assigning each of its consumers a job coach. Claudette Glenn helps Michael stay focused on the tasks at hand and shows him exactly how to do them if needed. 

“I love to be an advocate for them and help them learn the tasks, and teach them the skills, and demonstrate if I have to, physical and verbal. And making sure that they follow the instructions well so that they know what to do when they are on their own,” Glenn said. 

Desert Haven also has the Paid Internship Program, which is funded through the North Los Angeles County Regional Center. It covers the wages for an individual placed in community integrated employment for up to 1,000 hours in a year. The PIP placements also cover 100% of the cost of the job coaches who work alongside employees like Jeffries and Jeremiah Johnson. 

“She helps me when I don’t know something. Then she’ll tell me ‘Hey, you know, this is how you do it.’ She guides me in the right way to help me get the job done right,” said Johnson, whose passion is working on cars. 

Also on this week’s show, LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn joins McRae to discuss safety on Metro, in the aftermath of the Sept. 25 hijacking of a bus. Hahn, who currently chairs Metro, said that she’s in favor of a weapons-free system. 

“We can’t allow people who have guns, knives, lead pipes, board our system. Because no matter how many police officers we have, they’re never going to be everywhere at once all the time,” Hahn said. Metro is currently testing several weapons detection technologies.

McRae also sits down with Jeanne Kuang of CalMatters to discuss statewide propositions that will appear on this year’s ballots. Proposition 2 will borrow $10 billion to help schools repair their facilities. 

“It’s especially hard for school districts in low-income areas to raise the bond money locally to do that just because it’s dependent on property values. And so the bond, once the money is raised, it would distribute more, a bigger share of the money toward low-income districts,” Kuang said. 

Send us your thoughts to InFocusSoCal@charter.com and watch at 11 a.m. on Saturdays and 9 a.m. on Sundays.