Northeast Arc Receives Grant To Increase Employment Opportunities

Northeast Arc, a not-for-profit organization that helps children and adults with disabilities become full participants in the community, has received a grant from the United States Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

The Northeast Arc, the second largest of 700 Arcs in the United States, was one of five Arc chapters selected across the country to participate in the project.

The National Expansion of Employment Opportunities Network (NEON) initiative is designed to develop strategic plans to increase integrated employment opportunities for people served, including those with significant disabilities and mental health disabilities.

“Our application for the grant highlighted our success in providing integrated competitive employment for nearly 60 years, including the development of innovative small businesses to provide training,” said Tim Brown, Director of Innovation and Strategy, Northeast Arc. “As minimum wage and health care costs increase, we need to ensure employers will continue to consider people with disabilities when making job offers.”

The grant will provide subject matter experts to work with each organization to help develop strategic initiatives and plans. The Northeast Arc’s goal is to work with these experts to:

· Translate its current employment model successes to include people with more significant disabilities

· Evaluate current small businesses/training programs, recommend changes, and identify new models to explore

· Develop tools to evaluate 5-year regional employment trends so the organization can implement trainings to better prepare people for the future