October is “National Disability Employment Awareness Month” and is the ideal time to recognize and celebrate the more than 150 area businesses that partner with Opportunities Unlimited of Niagara to provide gainful employment for individuals with intellectual and other developmental disabilities.
The major challenges to productive employment of qualified people with disabilities are attitudes and false assumptions about what people can and cannot do. What people with disabilities CAN do is be productive if only provided an opportunity.
With the support of a federal program, AbilityOne, more than 40,000 Americans who are blind or have other disabilities receive rehabilitation, training and job coaching through qualified community-based nonprofit organizations such as Opportunities Unlimited of Niagara. The results are customized solutions for the federal government and our U.S. Armed Forces, and increased financial security through good wages and personal independence for thousands of Americans with disabilities. Program participants from our environmental services program work at the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station through a federal contract. They receive training and are paid to perform office-cleaning services.
Additionally, 150 other individuals are employed in local businesses through our P.A.R.T.N.E.R.S. in Employment program. This supported employment program provides companies with a tax incentive and qualified individuals assisted by a job coach. Moreover, nearly 200 additional individuals are employed by Opportunities Unlimited of Niagara, a United Way agency, in our subcontracting (assembly, packaging, mailing and inspection), food service and environmental services programs in our agency facilities and at business locations across the region.
On behalf of the individuals employed through programs at Opportunities Unlimited of Niagara, I want to thank the many types of manufacturing, scientific and assembly businesses, as well as the numerous restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and small businesses for their continued support of our vocational programs. By allowing us to be your business resource, you put people to work and truly change lives.
I am proud to be part of an organization that provides people with disabilities with the opportunity to reach their maximum potential, independence and integration into the community. If you can help provide employment opportunities to our program participants and fulfill America’s promise to people with disabilities, please call us at 297-6400 or 434-4050.
Connie S. Brown is the executive director of Opportunities Unlimited of Niagara.
Columns
GUEST VIEW: A job well done for the community
- Columns
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HAMILTON: The SPCA and the pineapple upside-down pie
It is said that, as free Americans, we often get the things for which we ask; we also often get exactly what we deserve. Sometimes it works out to our good, and sometimes it doesn’t.
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GLYNN: Slim chance now for a real thick ice bridge
If you’re not convinced about the unpredictability of Western New York weather, consider that this area was experiencing temperatures in the mid-40s on the 100th anniversary of the ice bridge tragedy in the gorge.
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BRADBERRY: Is Black History Month Still Relevant?
I am uncomfortably recovering and slowly recuperating from a relatively minor, but medically necessary procedure which has kept me out of circulation, out of touch and essentially on my back for a lot longer than I have personally believed was justifiable; however, in this case my opinion matters not; the doctor’s diagnosis and promising prognosis trumped mine, so here I lay almost completely befuddled, nearly unable to pen a clear sentence.
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CONFER: Time to end the NFL’s blackout rule
Long ago, in a much simpler time, ticket sales accounted for the majority of revenues for professional football teams.
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CITY BEAT: Stuck on traffic
Sometimes I feel like the traffic signal reporter in Niagara Falls.
Traffic signals have been making a lot of news around here lately. There’s the whole flap about what to do to improve public safety near the Como Restaurant in the 2200 block of Pine Avenue. -
HIGGS: Discussing crime and punishment in the Falls
Have to take a detour off Pine Avenue in 1956 this week to report on an event held by the Niagara Falls Block Club Council for its member clubs and other interested citizens.
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GLYNN: Hotel Niagara plan exciting for the Falls
It all sounds like a re-run of a TV program you’ve seen a dozen times. This time, however, there is every reason to believe that the landmark Hotel Niagara on Rainbow Boulevard will be restored to the splendid atmosphere that guests enjoyed for decades.
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HAMILTON: BOE and kids, or the SPCA dogs?
There is example after example of otherwise qualified Niagara Falls’ board of education members and staffers lending their time and efforts to organizations outside of the school district’s core business.
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GLYNN: Trust in SPCA shelter must be restored
Stories about the operations at the Niagara SPCA shelter shape the image of sickening and disgusting treatment of animals.
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BRADBERRY: Old medicine and new challenges
Having suffered and recovered from my fair share of illnesses and injuries over the years, I have come to believe that sometimes the treatment and the cure of my condition can seem to be far worse than whatever I may think is ailing me at the moment.
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