Adults with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities

Kara's Success Story

As a young adult with disabilities, Kara came to the Duman Opportunity Center looking for help starting her career. She began working with her employment specialist Allen, and expressed her passion for working with children. She guided her through every stage of the job search process, providing individualized support that helped her secure a job as a child-care assistant at a local park district.

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The Outgoing Sibling

Helping the World See My Sister the Way I See Her

By Renee Birnberg Silberman

My sister is the most emotionally intelligent person I know. Our mother liked to tell me Estella was so smart, but I brushed her statements aside for most of my young and young adult life. After all, she had been tested as having lower than average intelligence, and the doctors told my parents (over half a century ago) that the best place for her to grow up was in a nun-run facility in Wisconsin.

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Opportunity: JVS Chicago Seeks Social Enterprise Partner

A force for social justice, JVS Career & Employment is a 501C(3) non-profit serving more than 5,000 employees, employers and entrepreneurs annually with programs for adults, youth and people with disabilities.

The Opportunity: Employees with disabilities offer a large untapped talent pool for employers. While business is challenged with an aging workforce and a shortage of skilled workers, individuals with disabilities continue to be underemployed. Our goal is to partner with an inspired entrepreneur/business leader to develop a new entity to generate revenue and create employment opportunities for people with disabilities. As an integral part of its value proposition, the social enterprise will commit to creating public benefit in addition to generating profit.

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