Lighthouse Louisiana secures $10M grant to advance employment alternatives for these with disabilities
The Lighthouse for the Blind in New Orleans, Inc.’s has been awarded $10 million to assist youth and adults with disabilities put together for careers in telecommunications, customer support and different technology-driven fields.
It’s the second largest federal grant awarded from the U.S. Division of Schooling Incapacity Innovation Fund (DIF) Program nationwide.
Lighthouse Louisiana is a longstanding nonprofit group serving New Orleans and Baton Rouge devoted to empowering people with disabilities. The five-year grant will fund Lighthouse Louisiana’s Pathways to Success mission, which is able to present superior employment alternatives for people who find themselves blind, visually impaired and who produce other disabilities throughout 30 Louisiana parishes.
The main focus is on Aggressive Built-in Employment—jobs the place people are compensated at or above minimal wage and corresponding to the speed paid to workers with out disabilities performing related duties.
The Pathways to Success mission plans to ascertain a coaching middle; develop work-based studying experiences for profession exploration; combine AI and different superior applied sciences to allow significant employment for people with disabilities in customer support roles; and rent coaching employment specialists to assist workforce growth in these new roles.
“This grant is an amazing step ahead in our mission to create inclusive job alternatives for individuals with disabilities,” stated Dee Budgewater, president and CEO of Lighthouse Louisiana. “With this funding, we are able to develop entry to superior applied sciences and assist programs that promote aggressive built-in employment, serving to our group members obtain monetary independence.”
The U.S. Division of Schooling awarded $251 million to 27 grantees throughout the nation— during which Lighthouse Louisiana is in that quantity—who’re working to make sure people with disabilities have entry to in-demand, good-paying jobs of the twenty first century. It’s the Division’s largest-ever vocational rehabilitation-focused aggressive grant.
“Immediately, greater than 60 million adults reside with a incapacity—every with distinctive abilities and strengths. In our twenty first century economic system, we should present extra alternatives for these people to realize their targets for aggressive built-in employment, independence, and financial self-sufficiency,” stated U.S. Secretary of Schooling Miguel Cardona within the announcement.
Lighthouse Louisiana hopes the Pathways to Success mission will function a mannequin for different organizations throughout the nation.
For extra data, go to www.lighthouselouisiana.org.