A mother didn’t want her daughter with autism to be in a group home all day, so she got a job at a local distribution center.

At first, she wouldn’t talk to people. Once she broke out of her shell, though, doors started opening for her.

She earned her driver’s license, she saved money to get her own home, her employer helped pay for her to go to college and she graduated with an education degree.

After working at that place for 17 years, she became a special education teacher. She’s also now married.

She is among the success stories recently shared by Bill Elmore, owner of 4 Corners Employment Services Inc. The woman is one of his clients, and as a job coach, he helped her develop a résumé.

There’s also the guy who worked at a grocery store and his initial job was to do facing on shelves, but working with his supervisor and a job coach, he became a bagger and developed positive relationships with customers and coworkers. He has now worked there for seven years.

“I didn’t get the right fit the first time, but we didn’t give up, and we found the next thing,” Elmore said.

Another guy was in a wreck and as a result became an amputee. He tried to go back to work as a heavy equipment operator, but the employer wasn’t so sure about that. The man didn’t want another career, so Elmore helped him earn a certificate with a prosthetic, proving he could still do the same work he always did, and he wound up getting his job back.

Yet another client started working at a fast-food restaurant doing dishes in the kitchen in food prep, and as she learned more skills, she switched to running the drive-thru window. She has now been there for 23 years.

It’s all about helping clients with various kinds of barriers overcome those and find employment. That’s done through determining the skills needed for a job, building self-esteem and confidence, providing assistance with résumé writing, enhancing job-seeking skills, finding jobs that match needs and abilities, strengthening interview skills and building and strengthening relationships with new supervisors and coworkers.

“My thing is I think in the world, everybody has a place to belong, everybody in the world has a chance to be somewhere where they belong,” Elmore said.

For his clients, sometimes, it’s not about the money. It’s about getting out of the house.

“You cannot put limitations on people. You can’t. Ability, not disability, that’s the main thing,” Elmore said. “The thing right now that’s important to me is educate, educate, educate the employers. They are changing somebody’s life, and they are doing a service.”

While Elmore has worked with clients with disabilities for 24 years, it wasn’t until May 2022 that the Hayden native started his own business, naming it after the area where he lives.

4 Corners Employment Services started in an office inside the North Vernon Education and Training Center in Jennings County. That has since expanded to four offices and a discovery room.

Just a few months ago, he opened a second location in an office on the third floor of the Community Agency Building in downtown Seymour.

He began serving clients in Jackson and Jennings counties, and then Vocational Rehabilitation, the state agency that helps individuals with disabilities achieve employment, asked him to expand to Scott and Jefferson counties. Then he added Bartholomew, Clark, Floyd and Harrison counties.

Elmore now has six staff members who work as employment consultants.

So what drew him toward working with people with disabilities? About 20 years ago, he was running a nightclub in North Vernon, and his sister was working with low-functioning individuals at a state hospital and kept asking him if he wanted to hire someone with a disability.

At first, he wasn’t sure about it, just like many employers at the time. His thoughts changed once she brought in someone he used to play with in grade school. That guy was very high-functioning, and Elmore wound up hiring him.

After he sold the nightclub, Elmore worked for various agencies serving people with disabilities, and he became known by state counselors as someone who was successful with job placement.

“I started doing presentations in Indianapolis. They were inviting me to come to talk to employers that do this and train them. I was placing people left and right,” he said.

In his line of work, they refer to it as job carving, finding what a person can do and wants to do. All of his clients come through Vocational Rehabilitation.

“When a client tells me he doesn’t like anything, I don’t get upset. To me, it’s a win because now, I can scratch that off. They’ll find the thing that fits and they like,” Elmore said.

Not only does the client benefit from employment, the employers receive benefits for hiring someone with a disability. They get tax credits, but perhaps the most important part is getting an employee who is reliable and dedicated and works hard.

“To us, we look forward to the weekend. (His clients) look forward to work,” Elmore said. “They finally get to see other people, they make friends, stuff that we take for granted. We never think about socialization. We take socialization so for granted. They are able to go out and they are able to talk to people.”

Earning a paycheck leads to clients becoming independent, where they buy their own food, car, gas, home and other necessities.

“Most of my clients I have do get disability (check). Back in the day, if you worked, you’d lose your check. It’s not like that now,” Elmore said. “Now, they are spending money and they are paying taxes, so that’s now going toward their check they are getting.”

Independence is one of the four main goals of 4 Corners Employment Services.

“It doesn’t matter what your range of disability is. Independence is independence for anybody,” Elmore said. “Independence for me and you is being able to go out and pick out what kind of car we want or what we want to do. Independence for (his clients) is earning a paycheck to spend money how they want for what they need and like.”

The other goals are employment, support and milestones. The company’s motto is “All Roads Lead to Success.”

“I picked each thing that we stand for,” Elmore said. “We want employment. We definitely want independence. Everybody needs support, and then what happens is when we get done, we get paid in certain things, milestones. Everybody should have milestones in life.”

At a glance

4 Corners Employment Services Inc. is in Suite 211 at the North Vernon Education and Training Center, 1200 W. County Road 150N, North Vernon, and in Suite 306 at the Community Agency Building, 113 N. Chestnut St., Seymour.

The company is owned by Bill Elmore.

For information, call 812-216-5059, email [email protected] or like 4 Corners Employment on Facebook.

Clients may be referred through Vocational Rehabilitation by calling 800-545-7763.