Published June 19, 2024

On Friday, June 7, a group of 14 clients from our life enrichment program, staff, and the teaching artists from Upstream Arts proudly presented “The Art of Me” at Hanifl Performing Arts Center in White Bear Lake.

A collaboration between Merrick and Upstream Arts, “The Art of Me” featured live art, musical instruments, skits, songs, poems, dancing, and lots of laughter from both performers and audience members alike. The theme of the morning was “I’m here! You’re here! We’re here together!” This statement more than anything perfectly encapsulated the feelings of joy and connection that emulated from the performers.

For the artists on stage, the performance represented the accumulation of several months of collaboration between the clients at Merrick and the Upstream Arts’ teaching artists during which relationships were built and the creative arts were explored.

The performance marked the third time that Merrick has partnered with Upstream Arts to create such a production, which is a record for the number of times that an organization has partnered with Upstream Arts. And based on the feedback from this year’s production, it probably won’t be the last.

Published June 19, 2024

The 2023-24 Ambassadors for Respect (A4R) season has concluded and the final numbers are in.

Our 2024 A4R team consisted of 5 self-advocates: Leanne, Christine, Doris, Cindy, and Sam. From February through April, they visited 9 fourth-grade classrooms at three elementary schools reaching a total of 219 students.

Based on the survey completed by participants following the presentation, the following outcomes were achieved:

• 99% of fourth graders could list three ways to include others;
• 96% indicated that they had learned how to use person-first language;
• 99% could list three ways to advocate for themselves and others.

The complete report may be downloaded below.

2023-24 Merrick A4R Impact Report

We are so proud of these five self-advocates for stepping out of their comfort zone and seeking to make the world a better place by telling their story to the younger generation.

Ambassadors for Respect is a program of PeaceMaker Minnesota and represents one example of how Merrick practices its core belief of civic responsibility.

Published November 17, 2023

Amy S.F. Lutz writes (November 8) from both experience and as a disability professional showing that elimination of the 14(c) wage paid to disabled workers is profoundly misguided. Minnesota considered and rejected such a course in its last legislative session, only narrowly avoiding an action spelling widespread unemployment and disenfranchisement for disabled workers like Lutz’ son and my daughter Elizabeth, who has worked at a disabled employment center in St. Paul for over a decade.

Advocates of eliminating the “subminimum wage,” have made two major errors that would have terrible consequences for disabled adults. The policy misapprehends both the basic realities of the labor market and the standards of equity it purports to defend.

Elizabeth’s experience belies descriptions of workplaces like hers as Dickensian dens that segregate disabled people to toil at monotonous work. Far from placing them in an environment in which they are exploited, such centers protect vulnerable adults from the risks and possible abuse they would face in an unfettered job market. Her job allows her to spend full days with talented staff and with her friends and co-workers. She receives a wage based on an established record of her productivity, which is not sufficient to support her, but does not cause her federal disability income to be reduced. Some of her co-workers stay at the center while others go into the community to work at businesses such as local supermarkets, where they are carefully supervised.

Suppose the subminimum wage were ended and an employer at a supermarket faced the choice of hiring someone to stock shelves. One applicant can stock product at twice the rate of another applicant who has cerebral palsy. Both are required to be paid the same minimum wage. Who will get the job? Probably not the disabled worker. Without the subminimum wage allowance, even employers who want to hire the disabled will have a disincentive to do so. Many more such workers will never find jobs at all.

Requiring that all workers, disabled or not, be paid the same wages confuses two types of equity. One kind of equity says people who are similarly situated should be treated the same. The other says that those who are not similarly situated should be treated differently. Those advocating the elimination of subminimum wages confuse the first type of equity with the second. A worker with cerebral palsy is not the same as a worker without it, and they should not be treated as if they are.

No one would deny the right of any worker to seek employment at any wage they might be able to secure, at or above the minimum. But to deny the opportunity to work for less than the minimum wage to those disabled workers who desire and enjoy such employment will mean that many more such workers will be closed out of the marketplace and will remain unemployed and home alone. It may also cause many disabled adult employment centers to shut down, reminiscent of Reagan era efforts to close centers for the mentally ill and leave them to fend for themselves.

These are the realities which advocates of eliminating 14(c) wages refuse to recognize.

Carlisle Ford Runge
Distinguished McKnight Professor of Applied Economics and Law
University of Minnesota