By Ian Miller
Ian Miller, Content Marketing Specialist at The Golden Scoop.
Nikki Wagner and Renee Silva, of Chinook Enterprises in Mount Vernon, Washington, care deeply about the unique people they serve in their Skagit County community. Chinook Enterprises is an organization that provides uniquely abled people with employment opportunities in the aerospace industry, landscaping services, manufacturing work, and more. They also assist employers in providing appropriate accommodation and support for their uniquely abled employees.
“I’ve been [at Chinook Enterprises] for almost 13 years,” said Nikki, “and I’m the program manager . . . we’re working with DSI [Down Syndrome Innovations in Mission, Kansas] with a consulting contract through the Washington Initiative for supportive employment
to ensure that organizations like DSI can expand employment first for folks with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities . . .”
Nikki talked about her work at a women’s shelter in college that sparked her interest in helping people in need. “During that time, I had met several people with autism at the shelter and just kind of fell in love with this concept of helping people contribute
to the community and add value.” She became a para-educator after that, furthering her engagement with the uniquely abled community, and eventually found her way to Chinook Enterprises, where she’s been ever since.
Nikki and Renee visited The Golden Scoop on Wednesday; they wanted to see the kinds of support we offer our uniquely abled employees, so they can offer similar services through Chinook Enterprises. Prior to our visit, they had also visited KU Medical and the
University of Kansas Hospital. They praised KU Med, saying “the work that customer does is beyond what we imagined.” [Chinook Enterprises refers to their own employer clients as customers.]
They were impressed with the various opportunities that Kansas offers when it comes to employing uniquely abled individuals: “When we get to see opportunities that you guys have created that are really creative and innovative, then we want to go call them immediately and start making more jobs like that for the people in Washington to be,” said Renee.
Chinook Enterprises also does a lot of networking with organizations and companies that are interested in employing individuals with disabilities or are already doing so. “I call that corporate job development,” said Nikki, adding, “I think we’re invigorated
and want to go back [to Washington] and do some of that, and then also sharing back with Amanda [Myers, of DSI] anything we have that might be helpful to her, like more job descriptions for more local hospitals from some of our sister agents.”
They also visited Chik-fil-A and observed their employment program for uniquely abled employees. Nikki said, “I’ve seen those [program] models before, and that might be something we can create at Chinook, where students are coming in for eight weeks and learning skills in commercial landscaping or aerospace manufacturing, and then they’re going out and going into . . . long-term opportunities because they have that experience, very similar to Chick-fil-A. We could create that program.”
Find the Golden Scoop at these locations:
9540 Nall Avenue
Overland Park, Kansas 66207
913-284-804410460 W 103rd Street
Overland Park, Kansas 66214
913-232-9639Hours:
Monday – Closed
Tuesday-Saturday: 8am-7pm
Sunday @103rd: 9am-5pm
Sunday @ 95th: 1pm-5pm
