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PHILANTHROPY NEWS DIGEST
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| Name: | Community Options, Inc. |
| Founded: | 1989 |
| Founder & CEO: | Robert Stack |
| Address: | 16 Farber Road, Princeton, NJ, 08540 |
| Phone: | 609.951.9900 |
| Fax: | 609.951.9112 |
| E-mail: | Rachel.Fedor@comop.org |
| URL: | http://www.comop.org/ |
| Mission: | Community Options, Inc. develops residential and employment opportunities for people with severe disabilities, utilizing technology and training. Community Options believes there are four values critical to supporting individuals with disabilities and their families successfully: individual choice, customer satisfaction, person-centered planning, and economic empowerment. These values inspire every service Community Options provides and develops. |
| Background: | Incorporated in 1989, Community Options, Inc. is a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. The agency's housing assistance program provides support to people with disabilities who are moving from institutions into the community, while its employment programs focus on placing individuals in competitive jobs or community-volunteer positions. |
| Current Programs: | COI provides employment services
and appropriate housing for more than 1,000 people with disabilities in ten states (Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia. Internationally, Community Options began its first
program in Cairo, Egypt, in 1999.
COI developed PASS*IT*ON (Persons Achieving Self Support with Information Technology Through Information Opportunities Nationwide), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Labor in 1999, and eventually hopes to place at least 80 percent of the program's graduates in information technology careers. Community Options Enterprises was established to develop businesses that successfully integrate people with disabilities into the workforce. Current COI enterprises include Tennyson's Florist (1-877-VASEFUL; www.vaseful.com), in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and two shared office facilities, one in Morristown and the second in Princeton and both called the Daily Plan It, that offer a professional working environment and amenities to small and self-employed business people. |
| Recent Successes: | Since its inception less than a year ago, PASS*IT*ON, which provides skill-based training, internship opportunities, and job-matching assistance for participants with disabilities with the help of Microsoft and the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), has generated some exciting results. Today, PASS*IT*ON graduates are working as programmers, network administrators, Web site designers, database managers, and customer support specialists, fulfilling career goals they had previously only dreamed about. Eventually, over seventy-five individuals with disabilities will complete customized training at community colleges and universities in four states annually. |
| Web Site: | The Community Options, Inc. Web site (www.comop.org) provides general information about the national organization, links to and information about its local branches, and a secure online donation form. |
| Funding Needs: | With programs currently operating in a dozen locations, COI's funding needs are considerable. As founder and CEO Robert Stack notes: "Donations of time and money allow us to continue and expand on our services throughout the country."
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Every week, the NPO Spotlight in Philanthropy News Digest highlights the activities of a nonprofit organization; periodically, we shift the focus to an NGO in a country other than the U.S. Organizations are selected, using a range of criteria, to ensure the broadest possible representation of the nonprofit sector, both in the U.S. and abroad.
If you'd like to have your NPO or NGO appear in the "Spotlight," e-mail a profile of your organization (using the format above) to spotlight@fdncenter.org, or send a hard copy via snail mail to: NPO Spotlight(The editors of Philanthropy News Digest reserve the right to edit submissions.) |
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