It is fitting that October 10, 2023 is the grand opening of The Arc Wabash County’s Travel Bee Coffee House in North Manchester. Annually October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). NDEAM is the creation of the Office of Disability Employment Policy in Washington DC (ODEP) to draw national attention to the promotion of employment for people with disabilities. Research is adamant regarding the benefits to businesses that hire people with disabilities: greater profit margins, higher revenue, richer workplace culture, less absenteeism, and more.
In 2022, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 21.3% of people with a disability were employed while 65.4% of people without a disability were employed. The unemployment rate for people with a disability, 7.6%, remains more than double the rate for people without a disability, 3.5%, according to the US Department of Labor. In 2022, 30% of employed people with a disability were part-time, while only 16% of employed people without a disability were employed part-time.
The Arc’s Travel Bee Coffee House is “coffee with a mission!” The mission is to offer workplace skills training and permanent employment to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Travel Bee Coffee House will offer world class, eco-friendly coffee drinks and products with stellar customer service within the context of a mission-driven, disability-inclusive jobs training program. The Arc Wabash County is excited to bring this new business with a deep commitment to inclusion to Wabash County. So come in, buy a cup, sit a spell, watch the mission in action. (The Arc Wabash County thanks the AWS Foundation of Fort Wayne for making this dream a reality, and Utopian Coffee of Fort Wayne for support in this venture.)
