Community Conversation on Employment

The Baylor Center for Developmental Disabilities, in partnership with the Waco Committee for People with Disabilities, hosted its first community conversation on employment for individuals with disabilities at University High School in Waco ISD. The primary purpose of the event was to consider ways individuals with disabilities can experience improved access to job opportunities. More than 60 members from the greater Waco community, including businesses, organizations, advocacy groups and individuals with disabilities attended the discussion. 

The event commenced with a brief introduction led by Katie Laubender, the Center’s program manager for youth transitions, followed by three rounds of breakout discussion in small groups. Between each round, individual participants rotated to new tables to encourage a mix of unique perspectives and robust discussion. 

Conversations like this impact the wider community, because they address opportunities for businesses and individuals with disabilities to identify and employ unique strengths that provide mutual benefit. Focusing on potential and valuable skillsets rather than limitations was a recurring theme in many of the table discussions. Hayden Swearengin, founder and CEO of Loyalhood—a crafter and distributer of specialty coffee syrups—spoke about his experience employing individuals with disabilities when his business was at risk of dissolving. He expressed heartfelt gratitude for the hours his staff diligently worked at Loyalhood, allowing him to maintain his full-time job while preserving his brand and product. “It changed what Loyalhood really means to me,” Swearengin said. 

In a moving response to Swearengin’s presentation, Stephanie Nuner, instructional specialist of special populations at Waco ISD added, “We are dealing with an amazing population of people that are literally transforming lives… it’s not just about what you did for them, but what they have done for you and your business.”  

Members from the following businesses and organizations convened to engage in this important discussion. 

• Beloved and Beyond Camp
• Central Texas Housing Consortium
• Chaparral Insulation
• Cornerstone Caregiving
• Department of State Health Services
• Elite Therapy
• Focus Behavioral
• Friends for Life
• Heart of Central Texas Independent Living Center (HOCTIL)
• Heart of Texas Autism Network
• Heart of Texas Behavioral Health Network
• Heart of Texas Goodwill
• Home Instead
• KBBW-AM
• Loyalhood Syrups
• Magnolia
• Robinson Chamber of Commerce
• Region 12 Transition
• Texas Workforce Commission
• Waco ISD
• Waco Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities