Kevius Owens wants employers throughout the Tennessee Valley to do one thing for disabled workers.

“Give them a chance, a lot of them are real dependable,” said the 26-year-old Decatur man who is a cashier for Lowe’s in Decatur. The only accommodation his cerebral palsy requires is a stool to sit on so he doesn’t have to stand a full shift. That’s it.

Tiffany Bumpus wants employers throughout the Tennessee Valley to know how much her job at Wal-Mart Super Center has changed her life.

“There are some very nice associates in here, and in management, who I have made friends with,” said Bumpus, a 25-year-old Athens resident who has epilepsy. “It brings a smile to my face every day. I look forward to work every day. When you have that optimism, you try more to do your best.”

Owens and Bumpus are employees worth cloning.

They credit the Tennessee Valley Rehabilitation Center for teaching them job skills as well as coping skills.

The non-profit vocational rehabilitation center – located on the Calhoun Community College campus near Decatur – offers vocational, personal, social and educational services to people with disabilities, age 16 and up. Clientele can have any kind of disability including physical, emotional, learning, orthopedic or a job injury.

Owens and Bumpus said they went there to get jobs, but received a lot more.

“I can communicate with people a lot better. I am making more friends,” Bumpus said. “I am a lot happier. Getting out has made me happier. I thank God for it. Before, I had a more negative attitude. Now, I’m a lot more optimistic. I take those small steps. I am out in the world.”

TVRC is the only facility of its kind in the state to offers a diversity of courses to help jobseekers. TVRC serves as a model statewide for like facilities to emulate.

“There are all kinds of services available to help workers with disabilities, ” said Janet Hill, vocational services director at TVRC.

One service, called job coaching, consists of a staff member assigned to a client who will listen to the client and offer feedback on various worries or problems, usually related to work.

“The job coaching in itself is just awesome,” said Deborah Bumpus, Tiffany’s mother. She has been a volunteer for the TVRC and is a shipping and receiving clerk at Athens-Limestone Hospital, so she is familiar with the services TVRC offers.

Among the others are basic computers and office skills, certified forklift safety, learner’s license preparation, social skills and conflict resolution for work, money management and basic banking, work benefits and income and employment readiness.

“I work at shipping and receiving at Athens-Limestone Hospital, so I run across people all of the time who have a child or grandchild and who don’t know the services are there,” said Ms. Bumpus.