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Everyone, regardless of their level of disability, or the hurdles they have to
jump in the course of life,
has something to contribute to their fellow man,
whether it be to a community, whether it be to a nation,
or whether it be to their family. When we talk about the power of people and possibilities
that's what we mean.
We mean those individuals can do the things that you and I do,
if we give them the opportunity to prove that they can do them.
They're more dedicated because
persons with disabilities are like everybody else, they want to work.
And many of these folks, the jobs they are working on, is the first job they've had in their lives.
So they don't want to loose them. So they are willing to show up to work on time.
They're willing to take the step, the extra step needed to satisfy a customer.
They want to. We believe that everybody has capabilities
and our job is to help make those shine.
So Challenge Enterprises has grown over the forty years with many different
milestones of
creating activity programs for individuals with
disabilities who are adults. Opening the
preschool center known as Lighthouse Learning Center
and then getting into real work. We volunteered at many different places to
introduce work like activities to a population of
young men and women who haven't had that opportunity. They've become my friends,
they've become my family, and
I couldn't see myself doing anything else.
We have a lot of individuals that do the Special Olympics.
Whether it be bowling
or golfing, we do swimming, cycling.
Every week we have a group that goes bowling.
Just being honest, they have more of a social life than I've ever had.
Some of the other goals for the individuals, we have individuals
that own their own homes and you know
that's a goal for everyone. I mean, you know, I'm director of services
so I oversee the residential homes. We have
5 residential homes. I do the A D T, L S D life skills
life skills like cooking, cleaning
hygiene. We work on
computers for, you know, just learning, learning how to look things up for
themselves but also
you know, learning how to look up if one might want to work someday.
Some of the sites are the Bennett building, which is the IRS.
We work at the federal courthouse, Mayport,
NAS Jax. We work at Vystar. They are stocking
They are using the forklifts to unload the products. They are stocking them on a shelves.
They are cleaning.
A lot of the individuals go to work, and they've been on their jobs for
20, 25, 30 years, and they do an amazing job at what they do.
We provide a quality service at a competitive price,
and we also provide the training and support
that our employees need to be successful. The more opportunities we can provide
persons with significant disabilities to earn a paycheck on their own,
the less assistance they need from the taxpayer,
and that's a huge benefit.