STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — For the past 70 years, AHRC New York City, a chapter of The Arc New York, has been supporting thousands of people with intellectual disabilities by advocating for education and employment. On Staten Island, its programming is helping bridge the employment gap in the disabled community, and build a workforce that is representative of the population.
“We have a big gap in people with disabilities being represented in the workforce,” said Michele Shapiro, a director in AHRC’s Employment and Business unit. “That’s one of our major goals, for people to be included, to gain independence, and to continue to build their self-confidence.”
According to recently published National Core Indicators data from a survey of people with disabilities across the country, only 17% of survey respondents have a paid job in the community, while 42% of people without a job want one…