The next person I want to talk about is Keith.  We did not do a good job over the years of 
listening to Keith.  He worked in the laundry room of a hotel.  While he did a very good job and 
was content with his daily schedule and all of that, he would continually talk about what he 
wanted.  He wanted what he described as a man's job working in construction.  So, we met with 
Keith and backed up to learn more about that and figure out what all that meant to him.  We went 
to some stores that sell home improvement supplies to see what that meant to Keith in different 
environments as well.  It was very clear that it meant that he wanted to work with other men 
building buildings.

One thing that is so important is to use those connections that you have.  We had closed down a 
workshop and moved into a small professional business complex.  We decided to contact the 
folks who built that.  They were open to talking with us.  The owner happened to have a cousin 
who had a disability so he had some sensitivity as to what that meant in terms of quality of life 
for people and not keeping people segregated and out of their community. 

So it started out as a trial week.  Well, the week turned into two weeks, then three weeks. Before 
we knew it, they were saying, "Where's Keith?  He didn't come in today."  We knew we had 
some leveraging grounds with them.  They hired Keith as one of their construction crew, which 
Keith loved.  It was wage employment but we also knew that Keith had his eye on some of the 
equipment that they were using around there.  We talked to Keith about that.  One day during 
their lunch break they even let Keith drive one of the pieces of equipment.  

We met with the owner and said, "If you could purchase a piece of equipment that you think 
would be very very helpful to you and that would be in pretty continual use, what would it be?"  
It was a Bobcat.  We did market research and found that this is a piece of equipment that is often 
leased out in that particular area in Atlanta.  That is a huge growing area.  We talked to Keith 
about what he thought about a Bobcat.  We even found one he could drive and he could tell us 
what he thought about that.  He thought he would like to own a Bobcat.  So, Keith has purchased 
a Bobcat through his IT account.  That was blended funds from traditional Medicaid waivers to 
provide support for Keith and an individual training account to purchase the equipment.  

What I want to stress is you have to have someone working in that creative support team who 
knows the market analysis piece.  What we had talked to Keith about was leasing the Bobcat to 
other businesses so that he would have another means of income.  They leased out for about 
$200 a day so we thought this was a pretty good income.  What we found out was that that is 
considered unearned income and if we had gone that route, Keith's benefits would have 
immediately been dropped, including his medical benefits.  So what we are working out now is a 
much higher wage employment salary with this company and looking at a partnership with the 
owner.   Of course as part of the resource ownership they can use the equipment but he is going 
to have a 12 month a year salary, not seasonal, not just if they are working.  They have the 
opportunity to use the equipment with Keith operating it.  The partnership that will result in 
Keith getting a bonus, is that will be able to lease out the equipment when they are not using it 
and there will be a percentage that will go to this guy that Keith is in partnership with.