Internal Complement: Nonprofit Helps Hire Visually Impaired Workers in Central Florida
ORLANDO, Florida. “The pandemic has put pressure on many nonprofits in Central Florida. Jobs were lost and people were in need.
But one non-profit organization saw record growth in another category—employment.
Lighthouse Central Florida and Lighthouse Works help train and hire the blind and visually impaired. They just reached 500 employees.
“The pandemic has brought to light two things that have been critical to our growth,” said Lighthouse Central Florida President and CEO Kyle Johnson. “Labor shortages and a lot of companies and agencies that were never ready to work from home.”
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But the bulk of Lighthouse Works’ business is in call centers, which gives them room to expand. Lighthouse Works has quadrupled its workforce since 2020, hiring over 240 people. Johnson said they created more than 50% of new blind jobs in the US last quarter.
“Seven out of 10 blind Americans don’t work,” Johnson said. “These are very capable people and they are on the sidelines and they want to contribute to the economy and not rely on it.”
Malvin Fahy said he enjoys working at Lighthouse Works.
“They don’t focus on your visual impairment. They focus on your willingness to work,” Fahy said.
Learn more from Malvin Fahy about why he loves his job at Lighthouse Works:
He worked for the Lighthouse Works call center as a customer service representative and senior agent for four years.
“I never would have thought that I would be sitting here at the computer,” Fahy said. “But this is what I have a passion for. I have a passion to help.”
Fahey and many other employees use technology to navigate computers and get their jobs done.
Fahy lost his sight about 20 years ago due to complications from diabetes. He is completely blind, but uses a program that allows him to hear what is written on his screen in one ear and listen to callers from the other speaker with headphones.
He owned a car wash business in the US Virgin Islands before moving to Florida to be closer to his family.
Fahey and about 90 other blind or visually impaired people work in a warehouse near downtown Orlando. The rest work from their homes in 17 states.
“This is empowerment,” Johnson said. “Maybe they did some sort of skill research. Now that they are blind, they can no longer be carpenters, but they can do other things, and we will help them with this.”
In addition to the call center, the company also provides supply chain sourcing, implementation, assembly and distribution services.
“This is not a working program. Curriculum, of course. We are a business and there is training, but this is real business, real customers, real income and real productivity,” Johnson said. “Everything we do here at Lighthouse Works starts with value, performance and quality. If we don’t meet with value, performance and quality, blindness will never be part of the conversation. Our clients benefit from amazing competitive advantages because our workforce is unique, not in spite of it.”
Income from Lighthouse Works is reinvested in Lighthouse Central Florida to help grow and improve vital services. Lighthouse Central Florida offers rehabilitation education and practical applications to help people of all ages who live with any degree of vision loss.
“So the dual purpose of Lighthouse Works is to create a competitive career for the blind while generating net income to support services for the blind in our community,” Johnson said.
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