AbilityOne Authorized Providers Use Grants to Drive Results

SourceAmerica^® offers a range of grants to help the AbilityOne^® authorized providers in our national network to turn their ideas into reality. Check out how three NPAs used our grants to achieve high-impact results.

Challenge Unlimited: Boosting Client Health and Fitness
Illinois-based Challenge Unlimited, Inc. encourages its clients with disabilities to lead healthy lifestyles in and out of the workplace. Challenge Unlimited participates in the Health Matters Program™, which provides a nutrition and exercise curriculum for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The agency established gyms at three of its skill training centers. The gyms are anticipated to benefit 200 initial users, and this number is expected to grow over time.

Challenge Unlimited offset the cost of purchasing stationary bikes, treadmills, and free weights for these gyms through SourceAmerica’s Quality Work Environment Grant. The organization’s staff members believe that onsite access and not charging gym membership fees have raised interest among those clients who would otherwise be discouraged from joining a traditional gym or fitness center due to cost or lack of convenience.

UpLIFTD: Storm Damage Restoration
When heavy rainstorms destroyed the roof of its 9,000-square-foot operations hub in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, UpLIFTD turned to SourceAmerica’s Emergency Support Grant to help pay for some of the expenses not covered by insurance. Damage was so extensive that UpLIFTD temporarily relocated its entire business, which employs people with disabilities through janitorial, landscaping, and temporary labor services. The NPA was able to return to the building following a complicated year-and-half construction project.

UpLIFTD has also used some of SourceAmerica’s other grants. QWE Grant funds helped the agency purchase accessible doors, and Growth Modernization and Technology Grant funds were used to obtain security cameras for UpLIFTD’s parking lot.

Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley: Supporting Job Security and Streamlining Operations
Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley (GESMV) runs an industrial sewing facility in the Dayton, Ohio metro area. The agency’s sewing and embroidery operations are just one line of business that employs people with disabilities. GESMV offers training to sewists and produces a range of items for federal, state, and commercial contracts, including laundry bags for the U.S. Navy.

The organization used SourceAmerica’s Growth, Modernization, and Technology Grant to buy a new embroidery machine and heat press. This equipment, which typically costs thousands of dollars, helped secure jobs and training for sewists and significantly improved operational inefficiencies, such as work stoppages due to insufficient staffing or equipment concerns. The new equipment has helped GESMV keep up with the demands of existing contracts and made it possible to consider new business opportunities. GESMV has also used other SourceAmerica grants, including the Training Incentive Program to cover costs associated with SourceAmerica-led training.

Visit our success stories page on our website to discover more noteworthy stories from our network.