Recycling program will help fund activities for mentally disabled

Heather Rawlyk

Friday, April 23, 2004 | 4:42 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

April 24 - 25, 2004

Last year the residents of the New Vista Community for adults with mental disabilities in Las Vegas took a sun-filled cruise together.

Ever since, they've been eager to go again.

The residents are working hard to get that opportunity through a new recycling program that enables them to make money for recreational activities, while bridging the gap between the developmentally disabled community and Las Vegas community.

The New Vista Community kicked off Earth Day on Thursday by introducing a recycling program at the New Vista Community Emporium, 3085 S. Valley View Blvd., where local businesses with at least 50 employees can sign up to place a New Vista recycling bin in their lunch or break room. The bins will be picked up by New Vista residents once a week and the aluminum recycled.

The money from the recycled cans will go to a fund that residents can dip into for activities such as bowling, baseball games, camping trips and even a summer cruise, according to Michelle Jackson, director of development at New Vista Community.

"They are excited about the program because they don't get to do a lot of recreational activities due to lack of funds," she said. "Now they can actually work for it. There's a lot of ownership for them in this program. It's theirs."

The recycling program also gives New Vista Community a chance to help diminish a fear that people have of the mentally disabled, Jackson said.

"For a lot of people there is a fear and a misunderstanding of the mentally disabled," she said. "We want to integrate the mentally disabled with local Las Vegans and diminish that fear, so they're getting out there and interacting with the community by collecting cans from these businesses on a weekly basis."

The resident teams are divided into four groups of six, Jackson said. Each group will have one week out of the month to be driven to the different area businesses and collect the cans for recycling.

"We provide the bin and they've been wrapped with the recycling program's logo," she said. "A group will come, clean the trash can, put a new bag in and take the cans that have been collected.

"The job is easy enough for them to really do themselves," she added.

Jackson said she would like to see the program grow to become a paying job for a handful of the residents.

"Eventually, we want to see this program grow, where four to six of the residents can collect the cans and bring them back for recycling and be paid for it," she said.

Jackson said the job would pay residents minimum wage for their services, which is a step up from what they make with other small jobs they have.

"What they make now with other jobs they do is not even remotely close to minimum wage," she said. "Most of those jobs also kind of keep them hidden away from people and the community."

So far the program has recruited only one local business, Channel 8 News, to participate in the program, Jackson said.

"We're very much looking for companies with 50 or more employees to join on," she said. "It's such an easy program for companies to do and it will provide so much for them (the residents).

"It allows them to go out and do things and activities that you and I take for granted," she said.

For more information, contact Michelle Jackson at (702) 457-4677 or by e-mail at michellejackson@newvistaranch.org.