SBIR-STTR Award

The number of work activity centers providing training and employment to developmentally disabled persons has more than quadrupled in the last decade. There are now well over 2,000 such centers in the United States. These programs, funded primarily by state offices of mental retardation and developmental disabilities, are designed to serve those persons with developmental disabilities who are unable to produce at more than 50 percent of the rate of a nonhandicapped worker. These centers are critical components of the rehabilitation programs for these individuals.The demand for work activity center slots continues to grow. Yet, many of these centers are unable to find sufficient work for existing clients, let alone for the many clients in waiting. While the Federal Government and some state governments have taken significant steps in helping persons with less severe handicaps find work in sheltered workshops and in industry, little has been done to help the work activity centers in this regard. This project would study the feasibility of establishing a private enterprise to market the products of work activity centers and, if feasible, to plan for the piloting of such an enterprise. The enterprise, entitled the Work Center Marketing Services project, would market products through direct response advertisements in established journals and catalogues, and would arrange for the distribution of these products directly to the consumers.Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation

The grantee organization is a marketing cooperative whose objective is to increase the sales of products produced by work activity centers (WAC's) employing developmentally disabled persons. It has been shown that disabled workers feel more a part of the traditional work force and experience an increase in their sense of self-worth when earning an income from real work rather than "simulated work." Human Services Group distributes back to work centers any surpluses that are not reinvested in accordance with the profitability of their merchandise. This should allow participating centers to enlarge their productive capacity by increasing the funds available to them for hiring more disabled workers, increasing the hours of those already employed at the WAC, or purchasing additional equipment. The grantee organization targets the market for each product or line of products, identifies journals and magazines that best reach that target population, and tests its advertisements in those periodicals. Testing allows measurement of the response rates from the advertisements and the W AC's capacity to meet the demand that is generated, and establishment of competitive prices. Full-scale marketing of products is initiated by placing direct response advertisements in established journals and magazines.Social Security Administration And The Office Of The Assistant Secretary For Planning And Evaluation