October 2014 - Quarterly shop meetings give vocational program participants a chance to hear about upcoming contracts, receive training recognition and take care of general announcements. At the October shop meeting, workers learned of an additional job from a commercial equipment manufacturing company, which builds street machines from the ground up.

 “We’ve worked on floor mats as well as assembling bolt sets for one major industry in the Wichita area,” says Bill Loop, work products specialist who procures contracts for the program. “Our new contract is replacing nozzle fittings and putting them on a pipe. Once the company realized our potential for production, the jobs have kept coming.”

 The steadily increasing work gives folks “real world” job contracts to work on within a supported work environment.

One particular printing company nearby has the longest history with Futures, spanning decades. Production workers assemble mailings, sort and bag pogs and glue coupon pads onto cardboard displays, just to name a few.

Additionally we’ve enjoyed assembling military goggles and “top caps” (plastic logos attached to heating and air units) for many years. This company provides program participants with continuous work on almost a weekly basis.

 “Our guys love to stay busy working on a variety of contracts,” says Loop. “Businesses tell us they are surprised how reasonable our bids are, how quick our turn-around is and that we do quality work.”