Opportunity Village offers careers, support services and more to people with disabilities in Nevada. I spent a day learning about Cox's partnership with this organization and Cox employees who began their careers at Opportunity Village.
Cox has a social impact goal to empower 34 million people to live more prosperous lives by the year 2034.
One of the pathways through which we're accomplishing this "34 by 34" goal is employment skills: supporting employment pathways that help people keep pace with market needs and stay in or re-enter the workforce. Cox's partnership with Opportunity Village (OV) is a great example.
Along with my colleague Ariana Zuniga, I embarked on a day of exploring Cox's supply chain and warehouse operations in Las Vegas – which offers many opportunities for people with disabilities – as well as the Opportunity Village campus. It was a fulfilling day of getting to know Cox's talented workforce and learning about our commitment to our communities.
Wandering the warehouse
We began the day by meeting Ken Heinsen, Supervisor of Warehouse Operations, to discover the daily activities of the supply chain team. They gather early to fulfill hardware requirements for boundary partners like Cox Residential, Cox Business, Field Services, Retail and Construction.
We were greeted with a hearty welcome and smiles; we noticed a feeling of camaraderie and warmth that contrasted with the large, cool warehouse. This is a place where safety, inventory and fun are blended by leaders who love working for Cox: Ken and his manager, Jacob Nyhoff.
We met Cox employee Scott Travis, who demonstrated his boxing and sorting-returns techniques. He has been with Cox for 5 years and began his career at Opportunity Village. Opportunity Village helps people with disabilities “find the very best version of themselves,” and that's certainly something Scott experienced. He excelled with his training and acquired considerable experience at Opportunity Village, and was offered full-time employment with Cox Communications.
Optimism abounds at Opportunity Village
Having explored the warehouse, Ken, Ariana and I drove to visit Opportunity Village, where we were greeted at the entrance by the Director of Operations Malcolm McCollum.
He could hardly contain his pride of Opportunity Village's work and the partnership they enjoy with Cox. He took us on a tour and shows us a much broader picture of their work: for example, serving hotels and casinos with fresh or frozen cookies, packaging programs, janitorial service contracts, shredding services and more. Opportunity Village serves more than 1,200 disabled people in the Las Vegas community.
Next, we meet our OV associates who were hard at work sorting cables and recyclable materials from materials that can be repurposed, then sanitizing, wrapping, and packaging them for reuse. We were struck by this demonstration of Cox's community spirit, along with our commitment to environmental sustainability.
Opportunity Village has a great website and a thrift store that I encourage you to visit or to make a donation to, if your travels brings you there. OV says: “Together, we are successfully empowering, employing, and serving people with disabilities – positively impacting lives.” This field trip provided us with insight to how essential working in your community can be. Ariana and I have been emboldened to do more, to volunteer more, to thank the company we work for, for collaboration with an organization as skillful as Opportunity Village.
