The Lincoln County Chancery Clerk’s office,like all offices, over time has seen its share of clutter and needof reorganization.

    Papers pile up, office supplies scatter, and various things becomelost or unused, save to take up storage and workspace.

    When Chancery Clerk Tillmon Bishop decided something had to be donefor cleanup, he found just the right guy.

    With help from the Mississippi Department of RehabilitationServices (MDRS) Supported Employment program, Bishop employed JasonHadley, a 32-year-old man from Brookhaven diagnosed with Asperger’ssyndrome.

    “He has worked about 10 hours a week as a professional organizer,”Bishop said. “And he has far exceeded anything I ever thought couldbe done around here as far as organization.”

    According to the National Institute of Health, Asperger’s is anautism spectrum disorder characterized by greater or lesser degreesof impairment in communication skills, as well as repetitive orrestrictive patterns of thought and behavior.

    Hadley, originally from New Hampshire, was diagnosed about sevenyears ago when he moved with his mother and father, Linda and Bob,to Lincoln County.

    Jason Hadley said the only employment experience he has had in hislife were short stints at Home Depot and at a supermarket.

    “We had a lot of trouble finding him employment down here,” hisfather said.

    With the help of MDRS Supported Employment Counselor Sherry Brownand Vocational Training Instructor Cindy Collinsworth, the familyset out on a mission to find Jason a job.

    “Countless places said ‘no’ in this area,” Brown said. “Banks,Wal-Mart, school libraries. But nothing was available.”

    So Brown and Collinsworth decided to take a more involved approachthrough a program they have called Customized Employment. Thisallowed them to work one-on-one with Jason Hadley as opposed tojust trying to find someone to hire him, they said.

    “Once we put him in Customized Employment, we learned so much abouthim,” Brown said. “We dug deep into Jason and found something thatreally held his interest.”

    That interest was in organization. They found that he held anincredible attention to detail and logic of how something should beorganized, like the pieces of a puzzle.

    The next step was putting together a portfolio for Jason thatincluded a Powerpoint presentation, a sort of virtual resume forinterested employers to view.

    So they came up with the courthouse. Bishop saw the portfolio andimmediately wanted to hire Jason Hadley.

    Since May, he has helped in various locations inside the clerk’soffice to clean house and get the place in shape. One such place isa back room with thousands of records Bishop jokingly referred toas “the Dungeon.”

    “There’s been a lot of clerks come through the building over theyears,” Bishop said. “And Jason’s work is thorough and meticulous,extremely meticulous. And he’s proud of his work and so am I.”

    Brown and Collinsworth explained that these were tasks most peoplearound offices just do not have time to pay much attention to.

    Now that the chancery clerk’s office is clear for the time being,Jason’s supporters are arranging for him to work in other areas ofthe courthouse.

    “We’re hoping something permanent can come from it,” Brownsaid.

    Jason Hadley is also a volunteer aid at the library at BrookhavenAcademy. They could not offer him a job there, but his love forbooks and detail led him to want to volunteer.

    “We’ve been fortunate to have him,” Bishop said. “To have thelimited paid experience he’s had in the past, he has really doneexceptional work. I would encourage any business out there thatneeds help organizing to talk with the agency.”