Nonprofit organization provides residential support and job assistance to more than 1,000 people in 11 states
By: Jennifer Potash
WEST WINDSOR – Helping individuals with disabilities live full and diverse lives, West Windsor-based Community Options Inc. goes beyond placing them in jobs – it’s creating the businesses, too.
Founded in the home of CEO Robert Stack in 1988, the nonprofit organization provides residential support and job assistance to more than 1,000 people in 11 states. The agency also supports individuals with disabilities in Egypt and is seeking to expand to some European countries.
"There’s a great need for those kinds of services, given the enormous numbers on waiting lists throughout the country for employment and housing," said Madeleine C. Will, the senior vice president for strategic planning and advocacy for Community Options.
Ms. Will, who served as the assistant secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services within the U.S Department of Education during the Reagan administration and is the former wife of columnist George F. Will, works out of the agency’s Washington office. She has spent her career working on special education and disability issues.
Educated at Smith College and the University of Toronto, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history, Ms. Will envisioned a career in international relations and joined the Washington-based think tank American Enterprise Institute.
Her career path changed in the early 1970s with the birth of her first child, a son, who has Down syndrome.
Community Options works to form partnerships with local business, other advocates for individuals with disabilities and nonprofits in the communities it serves, she said.
"It’s really about creating a hospitable community for people with disabilities … and I think the best way to do that is to work cooperatively with other folks in the community," Ms. Will said.
In addition to placing persons with disabilities in jobs, Community Options has developed its own businesses such as flower shops and business centers which employ persons with and without disabilities.
This focus on the individual’s needs and a more entrepreneurial sprit, sets Community Options apart from other nonprofits, Ms. Will said.
"Most people with disabilities, particularly people with significant cognitive and physical disabilities, tend to be dependent on the public sector and also are impoverished and we want to try to break through the barriers to employment and the barriers to people becoming more economically self-sufficient," Ms. Will said.
Community Options provides work opportunities to bring together people with and without disabilities. Its Daily Plan It office, conference and copy center provides small-business owners and self-employed people with office space, receptionist services and photocopying. There are locations at 707 Alexander Road in West Windsor and in Morristown as well as a drop-in copy center in Trenton.
The next step for Community Options is to help persons with disabilities become business owners, Ms. Will said.
Following the model of the private sector will help nonprofit groups serve their clients’ needs best, but that requires different thinking on the part of those groups, she said.
"They have traditionally been driven by the public funding streams that support them and they haven’t necessarily been encouraged – in fact to some extent I would say they have been discouraged – from becoming entrepreneurial and competitive risk-takers," Ms. Will said.
National civil rights legislation, like the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 as well as similar legislation in many states, have made an enormous difference in the quality of life of individuals with disabilities gaining employment and housing, Ms. Will said.
But there are still more battles to be fought especially over salaries and wages for disabled employees. Community Options is one of the few organizations that insists "every person for whom we provide services that leads to employment be paid a minimum wage," Ms. Will said.
Employers confronted with a tightening labor pool are becoming more amenable to hiring people with disabilities, she said. But misconceptions about individuals with disabilities in the workplace persist, Ms. Will said.
For example, she said, a potential employer might question the productivity of the person with a disability or fear that person would require expensive physical accommodations.
While institutionalizing people with disabilities has become more rare in the past 20 years, finding housing for them can be difficult. Community Options manages more than 120 homes and properties for people with disabilities.
A few of Community Options’ clients have been able to purchase their own homes, she said.
Ms. Will’s son lives independently in an apartment in Washington, where he has worked for a nonprofit group for five years.
"It’s a dream come true for a parent, because you hope and work toward the day when your son or daughter can manage their own life and have a good quality of life, an enviable life with good friends and a social life," Ms. Will said.
For more information about Community Options’ services, call (609) 951-9900 or visit the organization’s Web site at http://www.comop.org.