PEABODY — To start building relationships in the community, the new Life Time athletic resort at the Northshore Mall in Peabody jumped on a proposal from Northeast Arc in Danvers to participate in their supported employment program by hiring a full-time employee with a disability.
Will Sutherland, a young man with autism from Lynn, was referred to the Northeast Arc by the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission based in Salem. Sutherland, 26, then worked with Sal Palermo, a lead job developer in the Supportive Employment Department at Northeast Arc, to find and secure a job.
“We are a human-services agency,” said Palermo. ”Supported employment helps individuals with on-the-job training, getting them ready to get into the working field, resume creation, and job coaching.”
Palermo usually spends about two to three days a week networking and talking to various employers about hiring some of his clients who might have autism, intellectual or other mental-health disabilities.
About 85 individuals currently work for various businesses in the North Shore community, Palermo said. Several people work for Nutre Meals in Peabody, for example, making boxes and preparing meals. Several other individuals work at Starbucks by greeting customers, putting away stock, or doing housekeeping.
Once a person is hired, Palermo said, Northeast Arc provides job-coaching support. A job coach helps individuals like Sutherland to learn their job and then train them. The organization currently has five job coaches.
Palermo and the coaches check in weekly with managers and with their clients about once a week or as needed. Palermo said that their clients enjoy working in the community, meeting new people, and learning new skills. Of course, earning an income is important, too.
Palermo found the Life Time housekeeping job posting on the Indeed employment website. He sent in Sutherland’s resume and received a call back, which led to a couple of Zoom interviews. Sutherland was hired the last week in July.
“Will is a great guy,” said Palermo, describing Sutherland as a hard worker with a great work ethic.
Sutherland lives independently with a roommate in an apartment in Lynn, not very far from his parents.
He said that his work at Life Time is easy and fun and that the people are nice. He said that his job coaches make sure that he does what he is supposed to do and, if there is any problem, they work on it together.
In his free time, Sutherland likes to play video games and spend time at his parents’ backyard by the fire.
Sutherland works on the operations team maintaining locker rooms, folding towels, performing cleanliness checks, and general upkeep throughout the facilities.
He is compensated equally to his peers. His shifts at the club are typically five hours long and he works 15-18 hours a week in total, which is comparable with other employees. The average team member works about 12 hours a week, said Andrew O’Donnell, the general manager of Life Time in Peabody.
“When we build a club, we try to truly be a part of the community,” said O’Donnell.
The club opened in July, and at the time, Life Time was hiring about 300 people. It is the 158th club nationwide and the first one to open in Massachusetts since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
O’Donnell, who grew up in Toronto, liked the idea of partnering with Northeast Arc in this instance because his father worked with young adults with special needs, helping them to develop personal and professional skills and finding employment for them.
“That’s something I saw my dad do as a labor of love for years. He had a high passion for caring for people,” said O’Donnell.
As soon as a manager came to O’Donnell with this idea, he said, he immediately wanted to step up.
O’Donnell said that Sutherland was a good candidate because he had past work experience. Sutherland went through the interview process and got the job. After working for a while, Sutherland expressed through the Northeast Arc process that he wanted to stay with Life Time for the long term.
O’Donnell said that Sutherland has quiet confidence and he is good at receiving and following directions and getting feedback.
Sutherland is a great addition to the team and in return he seems to enjoy working in a group setting, O’Donnell said.
Both Northeast Arc and Life Time are hoping that this partnership can continue and result in more people with disabilities working at the athletic resort.
