Kara's Fundraising Page!

What does independence mean to you?

At ABLED, we ask our clients what it means to them.

“Going to college or working at a dance studio” – CS

“Having a job” – JW

“Working at the Google Store” – JS

“Doing a good job at Goodwill” – MW

For many of our clients, the key to independence is employment. Maintaining a job at an employer of their choosing, where they know the skills expected of them in order to do their job. Earning a paycheck. Providing for themselves and their loved ones.

However, people with disabilities experience barriers to accessibility and employment, harming their quality of life. Strategies aimed at reducing disparity for people with disabilities have not changed key statistics such as unemployment rates (Antonopoulos, C. R., Sugden, N., & Saliba, A. (2023).

Additionally, many entry-level jobs prefer or expect candidates to have some experience in their industry (Indeed Editorial Team (2023, February 16).

Lastly, the employment gap between Californians with and without a disability is between 34 and 54 percentage points, with those lacking the skills necessary for independent living in the higher range (U.S. Department of Labor (2023, August).

For the past four (4) years, Alta California Regional Center (ACRC), the Regional Center serving the greater Sacramento area, has specifically highlighted the need for Vocational/Employment Training for adults with disabilities, as a mere 17% of ACRC clients (and 13% statewide) earn income.

Despite this need, the greater Sacramento area has thousands of open entry-level positions as of June 2024. ABLED is the only Job Training program in more than a 10-mile radius for adults with disabilities. Despite opening our program just six months ago, we are already less than a handful of clients away from being at capacity for ACRC clients.

Your donation will support ABLED in installing an iron security fence, purchasing a storage container, and buying gardening supplies, so that we can utilize the currently unused parking lot for our garden project, and create a safe place for our clients to work outside, while beautifying our campus.

ABLED began as a social recreation program for young adults with disabilities, running monthly outings starting in 2020. While talking with our clients, and their families, we realized there was a need for Supported Employment services for our population. We began the process of becoming vendorized with our Regional Center. In late 2023, we opened our doors in Orangevale, CA, serving clients from Sacramento, Placer, and Yolo counties. Our program runs Monday through Friday from 9 am-3 pm, providing clients with curriculum and practicum opportunities to facilitate their journey to competitive employment readiness. We provide training opportunities in the following areas:

-- Janitorial/Custodial

-- Admin/Clerical

-- Social/Digital Media

-- Culinary/Kitchen

-- Landscaping

The majority of our parking lot is currently unusable. Bollards are in place to keep traffic out of the area, but people still dump their unwanted items in the area, by foot. As well, there is a drug-using population that continues to frequent this area, as our location was vacant for more than 3 years. We would like to be able to reclaim this parking lot for more positive activities; funding from Farmers & Merchants Bank of Central California would make that possible.

Your donation will allow ABLED to expand its Landscaping curriculum to include gardening, where our clients will learn about the various sustainable produce available to them in the Sacramento Valley. They will plant, tend, and cultivate produce for our Culinary program. We will also make our produce available to our families and the community at large.

ABLED has staff and volunteers eager to make this project a reality. Our staff have a combined half-century of experience working with people with disabilities. ABLED’s Program Director, Dara Schneider, has more than 20 years of experience working with adults with disabilities. She is passionate about working with our community, and eager to share her gardening knowledge with our clients. We also have several volunteers with many years of gardening and landscaping experience–including a UC Master Gardener–who are eager to work on this ongoing project with our clients.

While we receive funding from Alta California Regional Center to fund our Job Training program, we require supplemental funding from additional services to support the breadth of our program. We have received a grant from Golden 1 Credit Union to fund the expenses necessary for our Job Training program, including expanding our curriculum and offering Social-emotional Learning opportunities for our clients. We also received grants from Pacific Housing and two other funders who requested to remain anonymous, for capacity building.

Thank you for your support of ABLED and our programs. Please feel free to come by ABLED for a tour, if you are ever in the area! We love to show off our program.