Norris Allen, housekeeping, special events and security manager for Darlington School, was recently recognized as a Sodexo Champion of Diversity for Education Facilities for the first quarter of 2009.
“Norris was selected for this award out of 300,000 Sodexo employees,” said Keith Raker, director of facilities. “I nominated him because I wanted our company to consider him nationally for his work with our hearing impaired employees.”
Allen hired his first hearing impaired employee in 2000. He has since supervised as many as seven deaf employees at the same time in such varied positions as landscape maintenance, housekeeping and special events.
“The job market is changing, the diversity of the work force is changing, and you have to adapt to that,” Allen said. “Our biggest challenge is communication. We have spearheaded an effort to get everybody on our facilities team to learn sign language. We’ve also posted the ASL alphabet on the walls throughout the office to encourage others to learn. A few are able to communicate that way, but if all else fails, we can always get our point across by writing on a piece of paper.”
Lately it seems that Allen’s good work has not gone unnoticed. He was honored as an Outstanding Employee of the Year by the Southeastern Regional Institute on Deafness in November, and was named one of three regional winners of the Spirit of Sodexo Award in the category of “Developing Our People” in August. In 2006, he was also recognized as the Rome-Floyd Disability Employment Committee’s Employer of the Year.
Allen has been a member of Darlington’s facilities staff for 10 years. He and his wife, Tonia, live in Rome with their daughter, Ciara, a fourth-grader at Darlington.
