Branding your business

Dale Rogers Training Center, Inc. (DRTC) recently opened its doors for state agencies and businesses around the metro to learn more about branding items through DRTC Promotional Items, a division of DRTC, which provides training and jobs for people with disabilities.

Some of the nation’s top promotional items suppliers setup various displays at the nonprofit’s main campus for the Dale Rogers Training Center Round-Up, showing attendees the newest items. Many left with new ideas to help advance their agency’s/company’s brand.

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DRTC Promotional Items places orders through suppliers, who then ship the items to DRTC. The “Swag Team,” comprised of people with disabilities, performs a rigorous quality check on every item, which is not the industry norm; typically, promotional items are “drop shipped” to the customer where errors with the order may be discovered. DRTC’s Swag Team catches these issues before the customer receives the order and works to fix any errors that may arise.

Kathy, Shon and Waneta, members of the Swag Team, explained to attendees why they would reject various items, from incomplete logo, to non-functioning zippers, to missing components and more.

Visitors also toured parts of the nonprofit agency, learning more about awards and trophies, also through DRTC Awards, as well as picture framing division DRTC Framing, and Robin’s Corner Gift Shop, featuring items packaged/assembled by people with disabilities.

Dale Rogers Training Center, and its divisions, are open Monday-Friday, from 8:00am-5:00pm. To schedule a tour, please email pr@drtc.org.

About DRTC: Dale Rogers Training Center (DRTC) is the oldest and largest community vocational training and employment center for people with disabilities in Oklahoma. With multiple locations in Oklahoma, DRTC trains or employs more than 1,100 people with disabilities per year. Visit us online: DRTC.org.

Valuing recognition

When was the last time you either:

  1. Honored an employee for exemplary work

or b) received an award for outstanding performance?

If it’s been awhile, chances are you have staff feeling underappreciated.

Mike stands in the Prism Place showroom with several acrylic awards.
Mike works in Prism Place and also cleans awards in the showroom.

In a study published in the Harvard Business Review, when a company has an established employee recognition program, 87% of workers feel they have a strong relationship with their direct manager, compared to just 54% of employees who identify their workplace as having a weak recognition program.

There’s also a correlation between recognizing excellence in the workplace and employee happiness. According to a 2015 study (also published in the Harvard Business Review), 70% of employees who say they’ve been praised for their work report being happy in their job. On the flip side, only 39% say they’re happy when not receiving recognition. Not surprisingly, the time since last being recognized also plays a factor in employee satisfaction; the more time has passed, the less satisfied the employee.

DRTC Awards’ employee recognition products can help your company boost morale, increase productivity and reduce turnover rates.

The Awards and Trophies division of Dale Rogers Training Center, which provides training and jobs for people with disabilities, is one of two companies in the nation that sands, buffs and polishes acrylic awards by hand. The end result is a beautiful, custom award worthy of your employees’ hard work and dedication.

DRTC Awards has many standard acrylic awards to choose from, each customizable with your company’s logo and branding. We also have the ability to print color and even texture onto our acrylic awards for a unique award. If you’re looking for something that will really impress your workers, our experienced crew can design a unique award worthy of their accomplishment.

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About Dale Rogers Training Center

Dale Rogers Training Center (DRTC) is the oldest and largest community vocational training and employment center for people with disabilities in Oklahoma. With multiple locations in Oklahoma, DRTC trains or employs more than 1,100 people with disabilities per year. Visit us online: DRTC.org.

2016 in review

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We worked, volunteered, played and developed lifelong friendships in 2016! Check out some of what we’ve been up to this year as we prepare to ring in 2017.

Dale Rogers Training Center (DRTC) is the oldest and largest community vocational training and employment center for people with disabilities in Oklahoma. With multiple locations in Oklahoma, DRTC trains or employs more than 1,100 people with disabilities per year. Visit us online: DRTC.org.

Working Hard For Our Clients!

The Vocational Services Program and Special Needs Program are super busy this month. We are completing a big order for Sela that includes packaging appliance cords, hoses, and/or accessories. Plus, we are placing Steri Fab cleaner into individual shippers for the same company. We also received another shipment of books for Scholastic – we place a price sticker on the front of the books that are sold at their Book Fairs.

Lanissa 3Lanissa works on Scholastic.

Angie and Laura 3

Angie and Laura package cards.

The Special Needs Program also worked on an order for DRS through Prism Place that included peeling paper, and adding ribbons and decoration to 400 ornaments.

John 3John displays the ornament he just finished.

These programs do business with more than 41 companies during the year such as, Pelco, Bodycote, Digital Design, OG&E, Hitachi, Unifirst, Corken and Beams. Dale Rogers Training Center is the oldest and largest non-profit vocational training and employment center for people with disabilities in Oklahoma. Individuals placed in the community or in-house programs earned 5.5 million dollars in wages last year.

From Start to Finish We Create Beautiful

Prism Place has been creating beautiful acrylic awards for over 20 years  with amazing results.  From your design concept to finished product, our team makes Prism Place your one stop shop for acrylic awards, trophies and plaques.

The craftsmen of Prism Place are the real stars. Not only do they master the skills creating wonderful awards, they are always training and developing new skills with every new project.  The skills are very demanding taking a special touch and eye to sand and polish acrylic. Knowing when to stop is the true key. Prism Place houses 6 main craftsman throughout the year. They have the opportunity to train 2-3 apprentices during the off season every year.  This rotation of trainees allows Prism Place to find new talent to add to the multiple facets of their division.

Blog Art - Prism Place Workers

Another facet of Prism Place is their Trophy Department.  This takes a totally different skill set, which allows for many different trainees to experience creating an award.  Assembling trophies is not just throwing pieces together, they must be assembled in a very organized way. This process is more mechanical, with just a flair of an artistic eye.

Plaques are bit more challenging, and to handle this challenge we have been blessed with a wonderful addition this year.  One of our former craftsman has come back to us from the private sector and now is learning new skills in the award trade.   As the skills are mastered, she will advance with her knowledge and is a great help with assisting new trainees.

For more information a short video is available here: About DRTC – Earning our own way

Blog Art - Prism Place2

About the award shown: Youth Mental Health First Aid of Oklahoma presents in-person
training that teaches you how to help people developing a mental illness or in a crisis.

Shop for a Cause at DRTC Gift Shop

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In 2014, Dale Rogers Training Center continues to receive recognition for its innovative programs and quality service for those with disabilities. DRTC provides these services by using the “hand up” approach by combining training with real-world production skills. You can support this effort by buying the products made here at DRTC. Our Gift Shop offers Prairie Spice gifts, Prism Place awards and trophies, DRTC themed gifts and holiday cards. You can also take advantage of the Wyman Frame Showroom located next to the Gift Shop. All sales proceeds go back to support DRTC’s mission and help its individuals blaze new trails and build their futures. You can also shop online at https://www.drtc.org/shop/. Shipping is available or you can pick up your order at the Gift Shop, located at 2501 N. Utah Ave., Oklahoma City, OK.

VISA, MasterCard, and Discover accepted.