The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired is a nonprofit agency committed to providing educational, clinical, vocational, and rehabilitation services for people who are blind or visually impaired.
This store, located within the Midwest Orthopaedics building at Rush University Medical Center, provides [image-nocss] three permanent positions and serves as a training facility for retail/customer service internships for people who are blind or visually impaired.
The Chicago Lighthouse Convenience Store offers customers a wide array of products, including fresh sandwiches/salads, fresh baked goods, candy, snacks, drinks, greeting cards, magazines and gift items. In addition, ATM services are available.
While the store serves a largely sighted customer base, Rob Cancilla, Lighthouse program director overseeing development and launching of the c-store, pointed out that the store is unlike other convenience outlets through its modern, sleek design. He also explained how it is different from most organizations by readily providing training and employment for people who are visually impaired.
"It goes way beyond a convenience store," he said. "It's education, it's experience, and it's an opportunity for people who are quite capable of performing any given task, but are often overlooked and many times not considered for positions for which they are qualified."
The blind and visually impaired community is currently experiencing an unemployment rate of nearly 70%, the group said, which is seven times larger than the national average. With the new c-store, Lighthouse's mission is on-the-job training, customer service training and hands-on experience in order to directly curb unemployment and develop their employees' resumes in order to increase their chances with other organizations.
Currently, the staff of Lighthouse's c-store is comprised of three members, all of whom are visually impaired: a store manager, one full-time employee, and one part-time employee.
Elbert Ford, store manager, started with the Lighthouse's school for children with multi-disabilities then moved into the agency's job placement department and Midway Kiosk operations. Ford was promoted to store manager where he oversees both the Midway Airport Kiosk as well as the new c-store.
The two other staff members are Patricia Maloney and Zenobia Shelby. Maloney is a former client of the Lighthouse's Office Skills program who was hired as a full time employee in the store while Shelby, who began as an intern in The Chicago Lighthouse call center and a part time receptionist, is now employed as a part time retail associate.
"Elbert, Patricia, and Zenobia are excellent at what they do," said Cancilla, noting that the quality of their work is a perfect example of how visual impairment does not stand in the way of a person's determination, effort, and overall job performance. "If a person works hard, wants to learn and succeed, and gives it 100% every time, this will show through higher quality results, regardless of visually impaired or not," he said.
Dr. Janet Szlyk, executive director of The Chicago Lighthouse, recognized Cancilla's success in planning, developing and overseeing the c-store. She also acknowledged the critical roles played by two Chicago businesswomen, Keven Wilder, owner of Wilder Inc. and Jennifer Nemec, founder of Ideation Studio, in laying the groundwork for the new facility.
Wilder, in addition to developing the retail concept and store layout, helped with selecting the store fixtures and sourced the primary food and gift vendors. For her part, Nemec provided the decor finishes for the store at no charge to the Lighthouse. Both Nemec and Wilder had played similar roles in the launching of the Lighthouse's recently opened "Tools for Living" Retail Store.
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