November 3, 1999

GTP Industries celebrates 25 years of service

Business provides job training and independent living skills for disabled

Carol South
Herald contributing writer
       GTP Industries celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary last week - 25 years of providing jobs, job training and greater independence and a sense of accomplishment to people with disabilities.
      Quietly, with little fanfare, the 75 staff members go about their mission of caring for the more than 300 clients they serve every day. They feed them, teach them daily independent living skills, give them job training and experience and supervise their work performance.
      Despite all these programs and contributions, a typical reader response to the above might be 'GTP Who? Aren't they that recycling company? What's that got to do with the disabled?'
      In the interest of clearing up some of the misperceptions about their organization and promoting their clients and services, GTP staff want to get the word out about who and what they are.
      "We're trying to move our consumers up the scale of independence, give them an opportunity to live a lot more like you and I do," said Steve Perdue, CEO of GTP Industries. "We provide the supports to meet the goals they tell us they want."
      Some of the services offered to area businesses by GTP include cleaning and janitorial services, vending machine servicing, packaging and data imaging and storage. By fulfilling these business contracts, GTP's ultimate consumers - the disabled - acquire valuable employment and living skills. The consumers work both on-site at one of seven locations in Petoskey, Mancelona, Rapid City and Traverse City or off-site at an area business, such as the Grand Traverse Resort, Bayshore Resort and other area hotels.
      At the Traversefield location in Garfield Township, 35 consumers daily repackage items made in other countries for resale by local importers, assembling toothbrushes or other small items. They can also take classes at that location on money management, gross motor skills and computers.
      "One of our big pushes is to have more community access for our consumers to jobs that pay at least minimum wage," said Lynn Patrick, a program director at the site responsible for rehabilitation. "It is kind of like mainstreaming them, eliminating the sheltered experience for those who want that."
      All of these business interests are driven by Perdue's conception that his position is as a businessman who offers services that happen to have disabled people as employees.
      One of his jobs is to create and develop businesses that will help people with disabilities train for and find employment, whether within GTP or another company. With total company earnings reaching $2.6 million last year for jobs landed and retained on open bids with area companies, GTP has proven itself a winner.
      "We are not your typical human service agency," said Perdue, who has been working in field of disability education and training for 27 years. "Fifty percent of our income from comes from our industries. We don't pursue a lot of operational grants, we do business the old-fashioned way: we earn our money."
      Some new projects this year for GTP include developing a Deaf Services Clearinghouse, a full services imaging center to replace the microfilm business and the search for funds to build two duplexes in Mancelona to house the developmentally disabled.
      The ACCESS Volunteer Mentor Program began last year. It is a program that supports a disabled person in volunteering, just like any other member of the community, in areas that interest them. This program is implemented in cooperation with the ARC Grand Traverse and a recent grant for 10 AmeriCorps workers will help it to expand.
      "A lot of folks who came in our program years ago now work part time and have free time on their hands," Perdue said. "This is a way to provide them something meaningful to do in something that interests them."