Sunday, December 20, 2015

Productive work and community inclusion for disabled, SVS South San Francisco


Pacifica Tribune/Jean Bartlett, Features correspondent, 12/16/15.  "State nonprofit teams developmentally disabled with park, breach cleanups.  Community of caretakers takes pride in work."

Image result for SVS Pacifica, CA beach clean-up picture
SVS South San Francisco
helps clean-up our beaches
....  "Eight years ago, Randall Jones (Director of Social Vocational Services) reached out to Lynn Adams, President of the Pacifica Beach Coalition, to offer a commitment from SVS South San Francisco to help maintain the beaches and surrounding areas in Pacifica. 

'We are so grateful and honored by the work they do,' Lynn Adams said.'We send our groups, which consist of six clients and two staff, to Pacifica every day to clean up where needed,' said Austin Hallahan, Program Director, SVS South San Francisco. 'By the end of the week, we have usually clocked over 80 hours of cleanup, often at the beaches, by 40 individuals.'

SVS South San Francisco serves over 100 clients. Included among the local nonprofit’s main focuses are: fostering individual independence, finding their clients employment and community inclusion.' Part of the process of finding our clients employment is for our clients to learn all the individual steps of completing a task from start to finish,' Hallahan said.   'We see more and more businesses opening their doors, minds and hearts to the idea of having people with disabilities be a part of their workforce,' Hallahan said, 'and seeing the benefits for both their businesses and our clients. We are fortunate that over 76 percent of our clients who attend our community based program are working and earning a wage from their jobs. We always welcome work and volunteer opportunities.' "  Read article.


Reference - Social Vocational Services, Inc. "(SVS) was founded in 1977 as a small after school program for teenagers with autism in Manhattan Beach. In the 35 years since its establishment, SVS has grown to serve over 4000 individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities throughout California. We offer a wide variety of services to meet the needs and interests of a diverse population."  Facebook.

Note photograph.  Beach clean-up is an image face page to Concord, CA Rotary.

Posted by Kathy Meeh

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