Citizens Development Center exists to provide a critical unmet need in our community. Our work center provides vocational training and real work opportunities to adults with severe employment disabilities. Nearly 90% have mental retardation; 50% also have a secondary disability (epilepsy, Autism, Down syndrome, etc.).

When children are born with a physical or developmental challenge, government funded early childhood intervention programs are available to support these infants and their families.

After the age of three, our public education system steps in to sustain the continued development of mobility and communication skills and to provide scholastic training. But when they graduate or age-out of high school, a gap exists and there are very few opportunities for young adults to transition to employment.

Citizens Development Center is the bridge to vocational training and employment that is essential if we are to maximize the investment we have made in these individuals during the first twenty years of their lives. If we fail to do so, many will be at home watching television and their motor and social skills will quickly deteriorate.

For some families, a child at home would mean a parent would have to quit work to provide full-time care. In single parent families, that would assuredly mean the family would end up on public assistance.

Citizens Development Center provides alternatives and ensures that these men and women have opportunities to work and that families can remain self-sufficient.

The Need

The 600,000 people with disabilities in the DFW Metroplex face critical disadvantages in life. According to the 2004 Harris Poll of Americans with Disabilities:

• Only 35% of people with disabilities reported being employed compared to 78% of those who do not have disabilities
• Of those employed 22% reported encountering job discrimination
• Men and women with severe disabilities have the most difficulty obtaining independent living skills i.e. social skills, academic skills, behavioral management and job skills
• Three times as many people with disabilities live in poverty with annual household incomes below $15,000
• People with disabilities have inadequate transportation and are less likely to socialize, eat out or attend religious services