By Chris Wiens | Director of Foundation & Donor Relations
Albertina Kerr's Employment Services for young adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) are experiencing considerable growth and advancement!
We are currently developing two new Project SEARCH sites in Marion County, one with the City of Salem. This will bring our total number of Project SEARCH sites to five. Kerr launched Oregon's first Project SEARCH program in 2014. In doing so, we opened new pathways to employment for young adults with IDD. The nine-month program partners with a host business to offer internship job-training opportunities, with the goal of participants gaining employment in settings integrated with their neurotypical peers.
Another exicting project we are embarking upon is our 1% Initiative. This initiative seeks medium and large company partners to commit to staffing 1% of their organizations with people who experience an IDD. Our current Employment Services corporate partners have already seen the benefits of hiring employees with IDD, which include low turnover rates for sometimes hard to fill positions and significant impacts for staff morale and organizational culture. The current retention rate for our Employment Services clients is 94%. The ultimate goal of our 1% Initative is to dramatically increase meaningful employment opportunities for adults with IDD who our current Employment Services partners already know are a highly productive pool of talent and a great source of organizational unity and pride.
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