TESH turning page as Korczyk departs

North Idaho’s developmentally disabled community will lose an influential advocate at the end of this month, but Ken Korczyk believes he’s leaving TESH Inc. in good hands.

Russell Doumas, 56, will become TESH’s new executive director July 1.

“I’m retiring from TESH, not from life or work,” Korczyk, TESH’s longtime executive director, said Thursday. “I’m excited about Russell. It’ll be good for TESH to have a fresh perspective.”

TESH is a non-profit organization that teaches life and work skills to people with developmental disabilities. It encourages independence for its 650 clients and provides work opportunities and support for those clients not able to live independently. It began in Coeur d’Alene in 1976.

Korczyk, 56, has led TESH since 1985. Under his leadership, the organization’s services and the size of its clientele quadrupled. TESH became known and accepted throughout the community. Employers not only hired Korczyk’s clients, they began calling TESH to notify Korczyk of upcoming job openings.

“Ken has just dedicated his life to TESH,” said JoAnn Curtis, who has served on TESH’s board of directors for nine years. “He’s always thought of the people with disabilities first, and he’s so passionate about improving the lives of people less fortunate. That drove everything he did at TESH.”

Korczyk had just earned his master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from the University of Idaho when he took a job with TESH as a trainer in 1979. He was paid only $5.15 an hour, but the job appealed to him.

“I liked what TESH was doing. I wanted to work directly with people,” he said.

Within months, Korczyk was finding jobs in the community for TESH clients.

TESH served about 50 clients then with 10 employees and a $300,000 budget. It worked out of a rented workshop where clients folded and stacked papers and did other such jobs under contracts to various businesses.

One of Korczyk’s first accomplishments as TESH director was securing a Small Business Administration loan for a new 16,000-square-foot building with space for offices, classrooms and a work center. Payments on the 3 percent loan for the new building were lower than rent on the old warehouse, he said.

TESH flourished in the 1980s and ‘90s. State and federal funding was healthy. TESH even offered job skills training for people without disabilities.

By 1999, TESH’s clientele had grown to more than 500. It had 80 employees and worked with a $2 million budget. It owned two apartment buildings where people with developmental disabilities lived independently with some help. Its clients learned martial arts, created art, played sports and worked and volunteered in the community.

Everything changed in 2001.

“It’s been a struggle. Social services funds are cut regularly. The economy hasn’t been good,” Korczyk said. “We lost opportunities to do contract work when some companies shifted their work overseas.”

The cost of health insurance kept climbing. The need for computers, software and technological phone systems drained TESH’s money. Its budget sank into the red for the first time since Korczyk took over. It stayed there for three years.

Korczyk scrambled for money, but the job had evolved into something that didn’t fit him.

“I got into this field to work directly with people,” he said.

Before accepting the job with TESH, Doumas was president of a non-profit organization in Columbia, Mo., that helped people with disabilities prepare for and find work. He served in a professional organization with TESH’s first director and learned about Korczyk’s retirement. A move to Idaho interested him, he said.

The TESH board liked Doumas’ business experience.

“TESH is at a point that we need to expand into other business ventures and opportunities in order to remain fiscally sound,” Curtis said. “Russell brings expertise and a strong business background that should help. Business opportunities related to people with disabilities could reduce our dependence on state funding.”

Doumas, who’s visiting Coeur d’Alene this week, said he plans to share results of TESH programs with staff and the public via technology.

“That way we can demonstrate to the community that its faith and investment in TESH is well-earned,” he said.