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EASTER SEALS WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM Overview The Vocational Rehabilitation Program addresses the fact that people with disabilities need to have the same opportunities to succeed as all members of society. That includes opportunities to work, to be productive, and to be as independent as possible. Thousands of people with disabilities do have these opportunities and lead successful, independent lives. Many individuals with disabilities are often frustrated in today's job market and find that our program gives them a chance and an opportunity to obtain and retain employment. The Vocational Rehabilitation Program addresses these issues by hiring people with disabilities to provide landscaping and lawn maintenance. We provide an array of services within a program of supported employment. The program helps people with disabilities work toward fulfilling their potential. In fact, participants in the program take great pride in knowing their efforts continuously produce valuable services within their community. Through the Program, participants learn basic job acquisition and retention skills, acquire a marketable trade, and are given help to identify and use community resources. Case management staff helps program participants in development and access to housing, transportation, medical care, skills, counseling, and job advancement and placement. Participants with little or no work history are given the resources and the opportunity for successful employment and independence. The Program is entirely self-supporting as landscape and flood control contracts with government and private agencies generate revenue to pay administrative and operating costs. Program activities foster a very positive and politically visible partnership with city, state, federal, and private entities. The program provides essential community services with a work force that would otherwise be underutilized or chronically unemployed. Benefits to the community include flood control, reduced property damage, and area beautification. Given the opportunity, the overwhelming majority of people with disabilities simply want what every other citizen wants - the ability to make a contribution and to make a living. Programs are needed which address the whole situation faced by the job applicant who has a physical or mental handicap in addition to social disadvantage. Easter Seals of Central Texas strives to address these employment issues. Brief History The Vocational Rehabilitation Program began in 1986 as a litter pick-up contract with Travis County, in which a few workers and one supervisor maintained 110 miles of county roads. In May of 1989, the program obtained a creek maintenance contract with the City of Austin as part of Austin's flood control efforts. The initial contract was for the vegetation control of approximately 250,000 square feet of open waterways and was 2