Published October 2004

Diversified clients find place to excel

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

For more than 30 years, Diversified has been providing job placement, training and support to expand workplace opportunities for people with disabilities — one person at a time.

“It’s really an individual process ... because we work with so many clients with so many different types of disabilities,” said Karen Grimsley, director of client services for the not-for-profit company.

The process begins with a meeting between a Diversified employment consultant, the client and the client’s family and friends to discover the type of job the client wants and can excel at. Then the consultant locates a position and provides on-the-job training, helps develop a workplace support system and provides long-term support as needed.

“The plan might involve several steps,” Grimsley said, including volunteering in a job situation that eventually evolves into part-time or full-time employment.

Sometimes, the jobs are out in the community. Interstate Batteries, Everett Events Center and Rite Aid are among the companies that have hired Diversified clients.

Other times, the jobs are in Diversified’s own facilities, which include a manufacturing center for electronic and mechanical assembly tasks, plus adhesives and bonding work in Mukilteo, and a recycling center and a new special projects center in Everett.

At these sites, Diversified clients with disabilities work alongside Diversified employees — and all are expected to meet the highest standards of quality inherent in a company that has been certified in the ISO 9001-2000 quality system and Boeing’s own quality control system.

“A major portion of our work comes from Boeing, making mechanical parts and assemblies,” said Pete Kinch, Diversified president and chief executive.

The recent addition of a special projects center will increase Diversified’s ability to do assembly work in the future, Kinch said. The building’s 3,000 square feet of space will allow for ongoing projects, such as the assembly of cleaning kits for Coinstar, with hundreds of kits being put together at a time. Or bottling Diversified’s own products, a new development for the company.

“We have our own product line called Easy Shine and Easy Shield, which are used as a vehicle protectant as well as in the industrial field,” he said. “Just in the last few months we bought the rights to market the product in the United States.”

The revenue generated through Diversified’s contract work as well as from sales of Easy Shine and Easy Shield helps to fund the other placement and support services offered to clients.

And those clients give a lot back — to their employers and co-workers — both in work and in spirit.

“They’re the whole reason we’re here,” Kinch said.

For more information, call 425-355-1253. The organization’s Web site, www.GoDiversified.com, currently is being updated to provide more information.

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