Prism Place, a division of Dale Rogers Training Center, recently gave agencies and businesses a behind-the-scenes look at how their orders directly provide jobs for people with disabilities in Oklahoma City.
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Valuing recognition
When was the last time you either:
- Honored an employee for exemplary work
or b) received an award for outstanding performance?
If it’s been awhile, chances are you have staff feeling underappreciated.
In a study published in the Harvard Business Review, when a company has an established employee recognition program, 87% of workers feel they have a strong relationship with their direct manager, compared to just 54% of employees who identify their workplace as having a weak recognition program.
There’s also a correlation between recognizing excellence in the workplace and employee happiness. According to a 2015 study (also published in the Harvard Business Review), 70% of employees who say they’ve been praised for their work report being happy in their job. On the flip side, only 39% say they’re happy when not receiving recognition. Not surprisingly, the time since last being recognized also plays a factor in employee satisfaction; the more time has passed, the less satisfied the employee.
Prism Place’s employee recognition products can help your company boost morale, increase productivity and reduce turnover rates.
Rebecca sands an acrylic award.
Rickey buffs an acrylic award.
Thomas sands an acrylic award at Prism Place.
The Awards and Trophies division of Dale Rogers Training Center, which provides training and jobs for people with disabilities, is one of two companies in the nation that sands, buffs and polishes acrylic awards by hand. The end result is a beautiful, custom award worthy of your employees’ hard work and dedication.
Prism Place has many standard acrylic awards to choose from, each customizable with your company’s logo and branding. We also have the ability to print color and even texture onto our acrylic awards for a unique award. If you’re looking for something that will really impress your workers, our experienced crew can design a unique award worthy of their accomplishment.
About Dale Rogers Training Center
Dale Rogers Training Center (DRTC) is the oldest and largest community vocational training and employment center for people with disabilities in Oklahoma. With multiple locations in Oklahoma, DRTC trains or employs more than 1,100 people with disabilities per year. Visit us online: DRTC.org.
About Prism Place
Founded in 1983, Prism Place was DRTC’s first entrepreneurial division. The Awards, Trophies and Promotional Items of the nonprofit agency advances DRTC’s mission of providing jobs for people with disabilities who hand sand, buff and polish acrylic awards, assemble trophies and quality control check promo items. Learn more at: PrismPlace.org.
Framing needlework
The possibilities in framing are endless. You never really know what treasured item a customer will bring in to have transformed into a masterpiece—from a wedding dress to a collection of items to board games and beyond.
One piece of artwork that came in recently caught our attention: a portrait of a young woman. At first glance it looked like a painting, but upon taking another look, we discovered it was completely done in needlework. Those of you who have worked in this medium know it can take many hours to complete a piece. This particular design took our customer 14 months to finish. She used a tent stitch on needlepoint canvas with 81 colors of thread; overall, she made 196,000 stitches on this beautiful piece.
The process
The customer brought in the needlework rolled up and we found it was a little misshapen. We laid it out and picked mat and frame colors. Before we could start framing, we needed to straighten the canvas.
The first step was cutting a thick board for stretching and lacing the needlework. We used pushpins to pin the canvas in place.
Then we used a process called lacing to sew the edges on the back. This keeps the work stretched and in place without doing any damage to it.
Heirloom artwork
Once we re-shaped the canvas, we removed the pins and resumed the typical framing process. The crew at Wyman Frame cut the mat and glass, assembled it and added backing.
The finished product was a beautiful frame that complimented the beloved work that will be an heirloom for our customer and her family. We have high respect for the amount of work that is put into each piece of needlework and will take great care in helping to make it a beautiful piece of art to be admired for many years.
Bring your family heirlooms, artwork and photographs to Wyman Frame for quality framing that meets your budget, and help provide jobs for people with disabilities at the same time.
Carla Folks works at Wyman Frame, a division of Dale Rogers Training Center (DRTC). Carla has been a Certified Picture Framer since 1989 and has framed for DRTC for four years.
DRTC is the oldest and largest community vocational training and employment center for people with disabilities in Oklahoma. With multiple locations in Oklahoma, DRTC trains or employs more than 1,100 people with disabilities per year. Visit us online: DRTC.org.
People with Disabilities Awareness Day at the Capitol 2017
We’re so proud of our advocates at DRTC who spoke with state lawmakers during People with Disabilities Awareness Day at the Capitol! Our advocates talked about the importance of state-funded programs in their lives as they push for their share of the funding pie. Learn how the current budget shortfall could impact folks at DRTC.
