I'm here to learn! Teach me, oh wise ones.

My name is Nicholas Pashia. I was born in Collinsville, Illinois. I'm a single child who grew up with two cousins who are still practically brothers to me. I grew up in a low income household where my mother eventually succumbed to substance abuse. At 17 I left home and struggled to find my place in life. Above all, I've learned a lot from these challenges, and look forward to overcoming many more.
After one combat tour in Afghanistan and serving in the military for 7 years, I completed my bachelor's degree. Following this, I found my true calling at a social services agency supporting individuals with developmental disabilities. Basically, I want to start a program to scrap computer/IT assets and give them an opportunity to earn some profit & learn vocational/technical skills. Any computers that are reasonable dated that can be refurbished would go to the homes of individuals in the program. You guys are a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate any input/suggestions you might have. I look forward to learning more about this trade from all of you, and I'm excited to use this information to help the folks who need it most. You're all awesome, have a wonderful day!

Welcome Nicholas!

I worked with developmentally challenged adults for awhile. Great people. The non-profit I worked for created jobs for them in light manufacturing, refuse removal and recycling, and janitorial services. They had an electronics drop off. Last I heard they were looking into recycling that themselves.

Only problem I had with that agency was that they didn't pay those folks enough. One guy who cleaned business on contract for 30 hours a week was only getting paid about $2.50 per hour. They could get away with that because most of his needs are being paid for by Social Security. Furthermore, their pay was determined mostly by their speed. They would do time trials twice a year. Many of these guy are aging into their 50s and 60s, so then their pay only goes down, never up

Sounds like a great program though and I wish you well.