Hershey's H.E.R.O.S. Offers Hope of Sweet Success

I was privileged the other day to be able to participate in an exciting, new initiative from the Hershey Company.  And it has nothing at all to do with chocolate - yet!

Hershey is introducing a new program they are calling H.E.R.O.S.  The acronym stands for "Hershey Extends Real Opportunity for Success".  H.E.R.O.S. is designed to provide competitive employment for people with intellectual, physical or developmental disabilities.  I was invited to attend the introductory presentation to a group of professionals involved in vocational rehabilitation.  Hershey officials wanted to not only inform us of their plans but receive input from us in order to make the program work.  It was a great time of sharing, brainstorming, and envisioning.

Competitive employment for persons with disabilities is never easy.  I have already written in detail about this subject on previous posts to Peace-Ability.  The sluggish economy doesn't help any.  For every story of success there remains an unbelievable number of rejected applications and ignored inquiries.  Employers generally cannot embrace the fact that persons with disabilities can indeed prove to be very effective, productive employees.

To be sure there are some great employers out there who understand this principle.  It is a joy to work with them and hear first hand their joy and satisfaction with those employees who are disabled.  But for a major global company such as Hershey to develop a program intended to actively pursue such employees is an encouraging development indeed.  What I find especially unique is the way in which Hershey is going about this task.  It is not some kind of promo stunt.  In fact, to my knowledge it has not been introduced to the media hounds yet.  Rather, Hershey wants to do it right.  They want to build a program that will spell long-term success for the individuals they hire.  To this end they have invited people who know what works and what doesn't work in vocational rehabilitation to inform them, teach them and assist them in avoiding areas that could become potential stumbling blocks.

At this point H.E.R.O.S. remains a developing concept.  The pilot program is scheduled to begin later this year at one, lone facility out of the extensive system that is collectively known as the Hershey Company.  But even with this it is clearly way ahead of nearly all other large corporations.  From what I have seen thus far , H.E.R.O.S. offers HOPE to the manufacturing community as well as persons with disabilities.

gdgehr

April 28, 2012
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