Meyer Memorial Trust has awarded DePaul Industries’ Unified Workforce program a grant. The two-year, $150,000 grant will help employ more people with significant intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (ID/DD).
The vast majority of jobs available to people with ID/DD are in sheltered workshops and pay a piece rate, typically below minimum wage. In contrast, Unified Workforce employees are fully integrated into DePaul’s Hayden Island food and consumer goods processing facility. And they earn at least minimum wage.
With the support of Meyer Memorial Trust, Unified Workforce will nearly double the number of employees with ID/DD in fully integrated positions to 40 by summer 2016. The state of Oregon is moving away from the sheltered workshop model. So Unified Workforce provides a new model for organizations that employ people with ID/DD, or those that would like to.
“Meyer Memorial Trust recognized the innovative nature of the Unified Workforce program, and the importance of creating integrated, well-paying employment opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” DePaul Industries President & CEO Dave Shaffer said.
Unified Workforce employees work alongside, and perform the same jobs as, all other employees (both with and without disabilities) at DePaul’s Hayden Island facility. Specialized job coaches work together with line leads and other skilled production workers to help train and coach Unified Workforce workers with ID/DD.