Crippled Child Highlights From Crippled Child Magazine, 1942 Marketing the Work Of The Handicapped by ELIZABETH HUBBARD T0 THOSE of us who have been working with handicapped adults, we daily hear the ever repeated cry, "I want a job--to be self-supporting." In too many cases, we know that this is impossible. When we stop to think about the case of Mary or John, we know that many avenues of work are closed to them; but from the psychological point of view, they would be happier, as well as better physically and mentally, if given something to occupy their time and hands, particularly if that something brought returns that were their very own," for then we'd also have a raised morale. We are all alike in our desire for work to do and a place to fill, handicapped and normal, but to the handicapped the returns are vastly greater, not in actual cash valuation, but in health giving properties of mind and soul. The value of occupational therapy is now generally recognized and often part of the prescribed cure. In many cases parents do not realize the great value to be derived from craft training-that busy hands produce happy minds and too often the family cannot afford the necessary supplies and materials. But early craft instruction received in an institution or from any other source may be the means of an earning power later on as proficiency is secured. Sometimes Mary or John does work at home and at first finds a ready market for her or his items among friends. But friendship is not a bottomless well and eventually sales become few and far between, the worker finds investment in material exceeding returns, work is pushed aside for lack of incentive, and in time the old cry, "What good am I?" Baffled, hurt, unable to earn any money that is their own, life assumes a dark and sinister role to be dreaded, not enjoyed. FOR THE last three years the Illinois Association for the Crippled has been facing this situation and seeking to find an answer. For the benefit of others, I would like to trace their endeavors and some of their findings. The first Christmas cooperative sale was held for two and a half weeks immediately preceding the holiday in 1939. Space was secured in a Michigan Avenue store rent free and the clerks were from the Association staff. Six organizations for the handicapped participated as well as a number of individuals not affiliated with any organization. The total number of Persons submitting work was less than fifty. Sales for the period amounted to a little over three hundred dollars of which 20 per cent was retained by the Illinois Association for the Crippled to meet incidental expenses. In October 1940, the Occupational Therapy Workshop was opened in Chicago sponsored jointly by the Chicago Woman's Club, the Illinois Association for the Crippled and the Illinois Occupational Therapy Association. Here handicapped adults, eighteen years of age and on through the seventies, have come for craft instruction. Some have been beginners, while others have needed only guidance in materials or colors, and a market. The shop has been in operation now for more than sixteen months, and we have found that the furnishing of a market is of major importance if we are to succeed. In December 1940, we had a small and limited number of items to enter in the second holiday sale sponsored by the Association. That year the shop was to open the Saturday after Thanksgiving and remain open through Christmas Eve. It was located on the near Northside, and was obtained rent free. Local stores furnished showcases, a box concern contributed boxes and paper bags, several radio broadcasting companies sponsored programs and pluggers, the advertising and formal announcements went out from the main office, and the clerks were volunteers interested in the project. Expenses included light, telephone, sales books, tissue paper and string. Mrs. Emily Waldman, then assistant to Mrs. Armstrong, Executive Secretary, was in charge. FOURTEEN ORGANIZATIONS and institutions, more than twice the number engaged in the first sale, participated including Victory Workshop for the Seaf, Craft Shop for Arrested T. B., Illinois Wing of the National Shut-In Society, Janeil Shop and a number of hospitals. There were also the unaffiliated handicapped in Illinois that had come to the attention of the Association who were given the opportunity of submitting work. A committee of three was appointed to pass on the work and pricing was based on quality and workmanship. While very little was absolutely rejected, poor work was kindly criticized and constructive suggestions sent to the workers for improving their product, stress being laid on the fact that returns would be greater where these improvements were made. When the books were closed after the sale, they showed that approximately two hundred and fifty individuals had participated, that $1100 worth of articles had been sold and that expenses had been $117. A 15 per cent commission was charged on all work sold to help defray expenses. Unsold work, as in the past year, was to be returned to the makers. THE OCCUPATIONAL Therapy Workshop, located as it was in the Chicago Woman’s Club Building where two and a half floors were for residents, was proving to be a small but steady outlet for gift items. The suggestion was made that limited quantity of the Christmas stock suitable for year round sales be sent to the Workshop. This was done and the makers automatically began receiving the benefits of a small outlet. This was the real beginning of a state-wide homebound service. Occasional news items in the Club Bulletin helped to inform club members of new gift and holiday specials. But our best advertisers were the workers themselves who welcomed this small attempt at a year round outlet. Sometimes two months would pass with no returns for a worker, then a sale and money received. Their patience was amazing-their faith too strong to break. IF THE workers furnished all their own materials, we took 10 per cent for handling. If the Workshop furnished the materials, we deducted the cost of the materials when the item was sold, the maker receiving the rest. Workers submitting their own items for the first time, or for any new project were asked to give us actual cost of making, the time it took to make, and a suggested selling price. If the item justified it we raised the selling price but made no mention of the fact until the item sold, then the worker was told and received the benefits therefrom. Occasionally we had to eventually lower the selling price to the one suggested by the worker. Never did we lower the suggested selling price without first consulting the maker, giving our reasons for wishing to do so and asking her consent. To us, that is one of the first laws in this business establishing between the worker and the marketeer a belief in the latter’s absolute fairness. In the Workshop we did have one general pricing policy which served as a guide. Let me illustrate it-a stuffed Scottie pup cost .22 to make so we figured cost at .25 (the nearest figure in terms of fives) considering the additional .03 to cover waste; to the .25 was added 100 per cent increase, thus making the selling price of the finished product .50. The worker received all over and above the figured cost of .25. As time has passed, we have been able to increase often the 100 per cent profit when time, quality, neatness, marketability, etc. justified it but the policy proved a real aid in establishing a minimum selling price. THE LATTER part of April we had the opportunity of placing our work in a gift shop on Cape Cod for the ten week period it was open. This shop was run by a woman who had had infantile paralysis and was now confined to a wheelchair. With the consent of the sponsoring committee a box was sent East containing items selected with care, keeping in mind summer colony and tourist trade. Many of the items sent were made by the homebound who over a period of years had perfected their work unaided by any centralized agency or workshop and now needed a market for their work. At the close of the ten week period, we had sold $50 worth from which 20 per cent was retained by the gift shop. We took no commission in this case since the entire undertaking had been experimental. We were asked to participate again this year and we hope that the present war conditions will not interfere with the closing of the Cape Cod shop, it was indeed a pleasant surprise to have an Illinois gift shop ask to carry our work. Following some correspondence, the same business terms as used during the summer were decided upon-work on consignment, no orders taken, and a 20 per cent commission to the shop handling sales. This shop is located in the county seat of a prosperous rural county and is owned by a young woman crippled; by polio myelitis and confined to a wheelchair. Since placing our work in this shop $68 worth has been sold in five months. Since this outlet was to be a regular proposition requiring tagging, boxing and postage, the Occupational Therapy Workshop, which handles all the consignments, deducts 5 per cent from all goods sold, taken from the total we receive from which had already been deducted the 20 per cent. Stock which has not sold in three months must be returned to the Workshop. SALES IN these two shops have proven the value of the small gift costing twenty-five and fifty cents. During the summer items in demand were headbands such as those worn by tennis players, novelty jewelery of all kinds, cottage luncheon sets, woven potholders, and chief among the more expensive items, woven silk purses. In the second shop potholders, pillowcases and utility aprons held top honors. Among the less expensive items were coat lapel dolls and ornaments, stuffed animals, and small dolls. Here too we found shower suggestions welcomed apparently due to the fact that our items were new features in the community. In order to increase sales and to acquaint the public with the fact that handicapped persons can do nice salable work, every effort has been made to have periodical sales. The state chairman for Occupational Therapy for the Federation of Women’s Clubs has taken exhibits to illustrate her talks and sold directly; the same has been true at all Illinois Association for the Crippled state meetings. The Chicago Woman’s Club has sponsored a number of sales on their regular club days and devoted one day early in December each year to a Christmas sale. In every case sales were outright, orders discouraged since it is too hard to depend on handicapped workers who may be indisposed just at that time. Monthly checks were sent to the workers, unless the amount was less than fifty cents, in which case it was held until the following month. Letters of constructive criticism were sent whenever needed. These stressed first all the good points relative to the items under discussion, secondly the criticism, and lastly an appeal to send improved item in. Whenever this was done, a letter was always sent of encouragement and praise. In every issue of Illinois Wings, state paper of the Shut-In Society, an article appeared giving a new project or valuable pointers to remember for work to be submitted for marketing. Workers were urged to ask questions and seek advice from. the Workshop. When advisable we sent new patterns with instructions, and this has been especially true for those whose work was too seasonable to be practical the year round. AGAIN IN 1941 the Illinois Association for the Crippled sponsored a Christmas sale, this time opening November 7. In general this followed the pattern of previous years except that expenses were higher as we had to furnish our own boxes and paper bags. About three hundred individuals participated and almost $1800 was taken in; from which 15 per cent was again deducted. And like the previous year, newcomers, whose work justified it, automatically were transferred to the Occupational Therapy Workshop for help or for a market. While previous work was sent to us only when we requested it, now we have more than one hundred people from Chicago, large towns and rural areas of the state sending articles regularly to us to market. This does not include work done in institutions. Recently two more requests from downstate have come to us from shops wishing to carry our work on consignment; as yet nothing has been definitely decided in these cases. Chicago’s newest hospital has opened a small gift shop under the supervision of their Service Guild and here we also have some of our items consisting principally of small stuffed toys, baby garments and baby blankets. In the first three weeks they were open, $30 worth of our work had been sold. IT HAS been increasingly evident as we experimented with special sales that a well located year round shop was necessary if our efforts were to give permanent benefits. While this had been a goal of the Illinois Association for the Crippled, we have realized that it would require considerable money to establish and there seemed little likelihood of its being self-supporting particularly if the workers were to receive adequate compensation for their work. Fortunately, just as we were closing our Christmas sale, we had an opportunity to contract with an established bookshop and rental library in a centrally located apartment hotel. Upon recommendation of the Committee appointed to investigate, the board of directors of the Illinois Association for the Crippled entered into an agreement for a three months’ trial period toward signing a year’s lease. The shop takes all responsibility for selling our merchandise for a definite Monthly fee. The Association assumed the advertising, getting out of gift enclosure cards, and the responsibility of maintaining stock of a high standard. The Director of the Occupational Therapy Workshop was appointed to be the contact person between the Association, the shop and the handicapped workers. A committee was appointed to pass on work submitted for the shop and on the establishing of prices. A 20 Per cent commission will be deducted to be applied against the monthly fee. The same institutions and individuals are participating in this new venture that have cooperated at the Christmas sales. In the first four weeks’ trial, without any special advertising, sales totaled $71, the second month $76, and the third month’s receipts will be over $100 from the report for the first three weeks of that month. Fancy tea aprons or mother and daughter apron sets, stuffed toys, baby garments, and woven potholders are, to date, the proven best sellers. THE WORKSHOP and the permanent outlet shop are not necessarily the final answers to the ever present problem, but we feel they are steps in the right direction. In the meantime effort is being made to provide the training, the materials, and the market for those who can and care to avail themselves of these opportunities. We hope, that as time progresses, we will be able to find the final answer toward the way of self-support for the totally and partially homebound handicapped adult, and perhaps out of our efforts will come the answer itself. In closing let me quote from a letter recently received from a homebound worker immediately after receiving her first check. This young girl is confined to a wheelchair. Two years ago her father, who was apparently in excellent health, died very suddenly. Unable to reconcile herself to his death, while she, helpless and useless, remained, she had come to the firm conviction that life offered nothing for her but that of being a burden to others. Then one month of contact with the Workshop, a check and this letter. “Thank you! First for the thrill I am getting out of the work I so enjoy doing. Secondly, for the chance of doing something for myself in the way of earning small amounts of money which will enable me to buy the things I so sorely am in need of. Third, for the greatest thrill of my life when today your letter came with the money order. Again I say thank you for the kindness and the most wonderful thrill of my life ...”