One of the more marginalized groups today are individuals with disabilities, both physical and mental. Luckily, despite the fact that people keep pushing them to the margins, there are many groups around the country that help those who are disabled obtain jobs and contribute to society. In fact, one of those groups, Centerforce, is located right in Lakewood.

Centerforce was founded in 1968 by parents of children with disabilities who had just finished public school. They found that it was difficult to find their children careers, so they started small by having them learn basic life skills, as well as learn handy crafts, in a church. Three years later, Centerforce was incorporated as a nonprofit, and although over the years the work they focus on has shifted, the organization still has the primary goal of working with local communities to increase the available job opportunities for people with disabilities.

Debby Graham, who has acted as the executive director of Centerforce for 22 years, said that despite the group's past methods of using sheltered employment, which is their name for the tasks in the church, and sending out crews of workers, they've decided to go a different route, recently.

"We have transitioned away from sheltered employment, we don't have that. We have a few crews left, but a majority of the people we work with now work in regular jobs in the community," Graham said.

Graham also said that thanks to many different partnerships with various businesses in the area, workers have a wide variety of options for occupations.

"It really depends on what the individual likes," Graham said. "We have several people that work in grocery stores, bagging and being courtesy clerks; we have people in the food service industry; people at Wal-Mart; Costco; somebody works at one of the theaters working tickets - really just a full range of jobs."

After a person with disabilities is hired with help from Centerforce and their connections, the organization assists the individual with disabilities through training and the interview process. Essentially, it's an employment office for this unique community.

According to Graham, the group managed to place 35 people with disabilities in jobs throughout Pierce County and south King County in the past year. For someone like Graham, who said she has family members with autism and other mental disabilities, this is quite the success story.