- Valerie Reyher, Martin Schwartz and Stefanie Knight.
Backed by a state grant, the nonprofit Kennedy Center Inc. has partnered with CVS Caremark Corp. to pilot a unique job training project that aims to transfer people with disabilities from unemployment to the workplace.
Launched in September 2011 with an initial $160,000 grant from the Bureau of Rehabilitation Services, which has since been renamed the Department of Rehabilitation Services (DORS), the partnership provides a framework for DORS consumers to compete for jobs at local CVS retail centers, with the initiative having been implemented thus far in Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield counties.
The partnership between the Kennedy Center, based in Trumbull, and CVS, headquartered in Woonsocket, R.I., began when their proposal was selected by DORS”™ predecessor in mid-2011 as a pilot for the agency”™s Industry Specific Training and Placement Program.
The Kennedy Center, founded in 1951, provides a variety of services and programs for more than 2,000 people with disabilities annually across the state.
Through the program, DORS consumers seeking employment are referred by their counselors to the Kennedy Center”™s Employment Services division and asked to complete 20 hours worth of work evaluation at a local CVS store.
Following the evaluation process, the top candidates are selected by CVS for a six-week, in-store and classroom-based training program, after which those who complete the program are offered jobs.
During the training component of the program, candidates are assisted by and work alongside Kennedy Center staff and current CVS employees.
Candidates are paid throughout the training period, with the Kennedy Center funding salaries for the first half of the training via the DORS grant and CVS funding the remainder.
To date, at least 65 people have been referred to the program by DORS, with 42 accepted into the program and 16 completing the training program. Of those, 10 people accepted jobs with CVS.
Martin D. Schwartz, president and CEO of the Kennedy Center, said the program demonstrates the potential of partnerships between the public, private and nonprofit sectors.
“I think the intent is that it is a model,” Schwartz said. “This is an example of the government partnering with the not-for-profit sector and how successful it can be.”
Schwartz noted that the nonprofit sector is capable of providing similar services as the government, but at a fraction of the cost.
“It”™s a much more cost-effective way of providing needed services to people with disabilities,” he said.
The CVS-Kennedy Center job training program runs through the end of August 2013. To date, the program has been implemented in the Greater Stamford, Bridgeport, Danbury, New Haven and Naugatuck Valley markets.
For the first year of the program, the Kennedy Center received a $160,000 grant from DORS, with grant dollars during the program”™s second year contingent on candidates progressing through the various steps of the training and placement process.
The Kennedy Center estimated it will receive about $7,800 in state funding over the second year of the program for each individual who completes the training program and is hired by CVS.
Valerie Reyher, vice president of rehabilitation services for the Kennedy Center, said the partnership provides a model that could be duplicated in other industries or on a national scale.
“We do feel that this is something we could bring to other companies,” Reyher said, pointing to companies in the retail and hospitality industries as examples. “And we”™re really hoping that CVS would want to take this on as a national initiative.”
Added Schwartz, “It”™s the old expression ”“ you”™re helping people to be taxpayers rather than tax users.”
