$500 covers the cost of 10 hours of a Melwood Job Development Specialist helping a person with a disability begin their search for a job. Employment is a critical gateway to skills development, financial independence and integration into the community.
Melwood
Melwood has led the way to expand employment and other opportunities for people with disabilities and injured veterans since 1963.
In the last 60 years, a lot has changed. When Melwood was founded, a child with disabilities faced a grim future of likely institutionalization – with its inherent risks of neglect and abuse and complete lack of opportunity to develop skills and independence.
Now, at Melwood’s Camp Accomplish, children and teens can dream big. With adequate support, training and encouragement, they can choose their own paths –thanks to their early experience living, playing, and learning with peers of all levels of ability at our fully inclusive summer camp!
Shaping early perceptions of children with disabilities paves the way for creating a world where everyone is fully included. YOU can help us make this happen! Please consider making a generous gift so that we can fund scholarships for Camp Accomplish, our inclusive camp for children of ALL abilities.
Camp Accomplish is just the beginning. With your support, Melwood is here to help people with disabilities in every step of their journey. Our fully-integrated workforce includes nearly 1,000 people with disabilities working alongside their typically-abled colleagues at more than 60 federal contract sites.
However, despite much progress, people with disabilities were still more than twice as likely to be unemployed as the national average -- even before job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Technology skills are in high demand and employers can struggle to fill positions. abilIT -- our IT skills and personal development support program for people with disabilities -- prepares students to gain industry-recognized qualifications that will enable them to take their first step into a career in IT, cybersecurity or office administration.
For every person Melwood supports, many more are still beyond the reach of our over-subscribed programs. Help us scale-up our work by donating to Melwood as generously as you can and help create opportunities for many more people with disabilities to transform their lives.
