Helping the Mentally Disadvantaged Find Jobs

By Mike Switzer

Published April 28, 2016 at 5:09 AM EDT

Sometimes finding a job can be difficult. It can be even more difficult if the job-searcher has a disability. And our next guest says that it can be extremely difficult if that person has been diagnosed with mental illness. She should know; her organization has been helping these folks in the Midlands for 20 years.

Mike Switzer interviews Rosemary Hedden, executive director of Work in Progress, based in Columbia, SC.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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