Grant to Help Suffolk’s Disabled in Job Search
The Suffolk County Workforce Investment Board in Smithtown has been awarded a $298,751 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to help make the county’s one-stop career centers more user-friendly for job hunters with disabilities. Starting next month, a service coordinator from Abilities, Inc., an Albertson-based training and placement nonprofit, will work four days a week at the George A. Mason One-Stop Employ-ment Center at the Suffolk County Department of Labor in Hauppauge. The coordinator will help disabled job hunters navigate the system, as well as train center staff and do community outreach. On the fifth day the coordinator will work from the Riverhead One-Stop Employment Center. The funding is part of the $17 million awarded to 41 other such organizations by the department of labor to enhance employment and advancement of the disabled. Through another labor department grant for $700,000, eight Abilities, Inc. staffers were placed at Hempstead Works Career Center. -Patricia Kitchen
Newsday 7/23/03