Introduction and Mission:
Gateway to Access Resources (GAR) is a registered Colorado Non-Profit Corporation created in November of 2004 for the public benefit and committed to providing services to the public. GAR provides vocational training to persons with disabilities with an emphasis on intensive job skills, vocational support and technical literacy programs.
History:
Gateway to Access Resources (GAR) was formed by individuals active in the areas of vocational counseling and adaptive technology for persons with disabilities. Over the years our founders, as evidenced from the short bios below, have volunteered significant time assisting people with disabilities in both job seeking and technology training. GAR was incorporated out of this history of volunteer service to allow wider participation and access to a more formal menu of programs designed to give persons with disabilities the supports necessary to become successful job seekers. GAR's unique approach is to bring together vocational and technological resources into a format that allows consumers to combine job-seeking training with business skills training. Through this blend, consumers are able to establish a repertoire of skills that addresses the major concerns cited by employers as obstacles to hiring persons with disabilities.
Board of Directors:
Brenda Mosby, the Executive Director of GAR, is active on a variety of committees, boards and commissions serving both the Denver and Colorado-wide communities of persons with disabilities. She is Chairperson of the State Rehabilitation Council (SRC) and is a Commissioner with the Denver Commission for People with Disabilities (DCPD). Ms. Mosby's background is in Vocational Counseling and she holds a Master's degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from New York University and she is nationally accredited as a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor (CRC). Ms. Mosby has previously been employed as a vocational specialist by Services for the Underserved (SUS) in Brooklyn, New York.
Ray Zupancic has been involved in the implementation and training of adaptive technology for over a decade including extensive involvement with the installation and maintenance of adaptive technology systems at the Auraria Campus while an employee of the University of Colorado at Denver. Mr. Zupancic has also worked as an adaptive technology consultant for the Metropolitan State College of Denver and as an instructor in Information Systems for the Community College of Denver where he taught Programming and Systems Administration.
In addition to experience with academic institutions, he has extensive experience in the private sector including positions as a Programmer and Systems Administrator with Mapquest Publishing Group, Network Engineer with Qwest Communications' IP Services Division, and Sr. Network Engineer and Manager of Network Operations for Webb Interactive Services. Mr. Zupancic has also served as a volunteer for a variety of institutions serving persons with disabilities including the New York Lighthouse and New York University's Rusk Institute for Rehabilitative Medicine. Mr. Zupancic has a Bachelor's degree from the New School for Social Research in New York City and also holds several industry certifications including a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE).
Our Target Population and Consumers:
GAR's programs are designed to serve persons with a wide range of disabilities including both learning and physical disabilities. Eligible consumers will include individuals with documented disabilities who are unemployed or underemployed and are seeking assistance and training to help compete in the job market. The program is also open to college students with disabilities who are preparing for graduation as well as those who are recently graduated and are seeking additional vocational resources as they launch their employment searches.
Benefits to the Community
GAR is positioned to assist in creating a better trained and more job ready workforce within our community by virtue of working with one of the area's most underutilized populations: persons with disabilities. People with disabilities, even those with college degrees, sometimes lack literacy with or access to the technology that would allow them to compete in the job market. Beyond this, employers often lack familiarity in the true potential of persons with disabilities to be fully-productive workers that can benefit their business bottom line. GAR has programs that approach these obstacles from both ends in an attempt to bring employers and job ready individuals together.
Marketing and Revenue Generation:
We actively pursue vendor status with any relevant entity and our founders have significant experience developing and marketing services to disability-related agencies. We are also in the beginning stages of aggressively marketing our services to a broad range of public and private entities including area colleges, rehabilitation facilities, and private employers. Beyond service fee based revenue, GAR plans to pursue establishment grants to assist in setting up initial facilities as well as ongoing development grants to enhance and sustain services. Grant monies would also substantially broaden our ability to extend services to individuals not necessarily sponsored by a brokering agency but, nevertheless, in a position to benefit from our services.
Differentiating Factors - Why GAR's Services are Needed:
The employment rate for persons with disabilities in Colorado is approximately 45% [1] (non-institutionalized persons, age 18 to 64), and is significantly lower nationally. This compares with an employment rate of around 87% for persons in Colorado (age 18 to 64) without disabilities. While some strides have been made in preparing persons with disabilities to be more competitive in the job market, no one approach has met with more than marginal success in reducing this large discrepancy. The population of persons with disabilities has consistently experienced a low employment rate even during the best of economic times and even with the assistance of legal initiatives such as the Americans with Disabilities Act.
It has become clear that programs must begin to pay very close attention to employer feedback and requirements as well as attempting to initiate employer development and liaison services, if they are to have significant results for their consumer-base. Traditional vocational programs not focused on persons with disabilities tend to be ineffectual when persons with disabilities attempt to use themfrequently persons with disabilities literally cant make it through the front door of such programs. The burden of specialized and ongoing training and technology requirements needed to serve persons with disabilities is largely unsustainable when placed on mainstream resources. Existing programs specifically aimed at persons with disabilities tend to be one-dimensional and lacking in employer outreach services and relevant vocational skills training. Finally, brokering services, such as the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR), play a vital role in disability employment and GAR is positioned not as a brokering service but as a vendor with respect to them.
GAR's vocational skills counseling programs are designed to assist persons in clarifying their own career interests and creativity with an emphasis beyond participating in the economic margins that people with disabilities often find themselves in. Clarity and focus on a lifelong plan of vocational advancement are the seeds that can give rise to true participation in the economic mainstream.
Appendix I - Employment Statistics for Colorado
The percentages of Coloradans without a disability that are employed
(figure 1 below)2
Figure 1
The percentages of Coloradans with a disability that are employed (figure 2 below)2
Figure 2
