Fuelling our community

By Carolyn Sloan

The Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

Calling it full-serve is almost an understatement, when for one gas station, serving the multiple needs of the community is what it’s all about.

When the Carlton Road Industries Association purchased the former Co-op gas bar in Lawrencetown, they knew it would be a win-win situation. The village needed a place to buy gas, and their clients, an opportunity to develop greater independence and confidence in their own abilities.

“The village needed a service,” says the non-profit’s executive director Peter Grimmer. “We needed to find a form of meaningful employment for our clients.”

Located in Lawrencetown, Carleton Road Industries is an adult service centre that provides vocational and life skills training to residents in Annapolis and Kings counties who are labeled as having mental, intellectual, emotional and/or physical disabilities.

Through the vocational program and the developmental services program offered by the association, clients acquire the skills they need to gain independence, both in the workplace and in the community.

Now that the non-profit organization owns and operates the gas bar, their clients will have additional opportunities to learn social skills and to gain experience that will make them even more employable.

“We’ve decided to offshoot to business that are more aligned with the community and its needs,” explains Grimmer. “[The gas bar] involves community awareness of who we are. “It involves the opportunity for increased and enhanced social skills for the clients. It provides them with training…monetary skills, and experience working as part of a team.”

While the ultimate goal of the vocational training is independent employment, the clients receive varying levels of support based on their individual abilities. While some are employed at the centre to do jobs involving woodworking, landscaping, and producing kindling, others have job placements within the community. Through a supported employment program, clients and their employers, such as Sobeys and Subway, are given support by staff, who gradually lessen their support as the need decreases.

“We work with the person as long as it takes for them to feel comfortable and confident and for the employer to feel the same,” says Grimmer. “The people we employ are very capable of maintaining community standards. They’re very capable of independent employment, but also, they can be employed by being supported by us at the same time.”

Independence, he adds, is key to developing confidence, and with confidence, clients’ abilities emerge.

“As people develop a confidence, they bring more of themselves out,” Grimmer explains. “As they bring themselves out, other abilities are known.

“Personally, I have watched over the last 10 years our guys develop a huge sense of pride, and it shows.”

Getting into the gas station business has been a challenging learning experience for the staff as well. And yet, the support they have received from the community, the villagers in particular, has been overwhelming.

A couple weeks ago, Grimmer was invited to a village commission meeting to make a presentation, and was flooded with support from local residents who were amazed at the high level of service that the station provides. At XTR in Lawrencetown, full-serve means full-serve.

“After the presentation, one of the village commissioners said that he was so stunned that he could not speak when he was offered to have his windshield cleaned,” says Grimmer, smiling.

“We plan to be here for a long time to continue to provide a service, which I think, is a well needed service in the immediate area, and we look forward to continuing work with the community.”