Raleigh, North Carolina – HANDmeUPs thrift shop has had a successful first six months since opening and its managers are now offering paid positions to people who have been volunteering since the beginning.
HANDmeUPs mission is to employ older teens and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities.
The store is operated by a nonprofit organization, The Power of the Dream, that promotes empowerment for those with developmental disabilities.
Gena Brown and Jeff Fleming who are the Managers raised money to launch the store after losing their jobs.
Gena Brown said:
“We made the decision that we could go back to teaching special education or we could go ahead and start something where we could hire individuals with disabilities because there is a great need,”
Now that the business is up and running and successful they are now in the position to offer paid employment to those people who might otherwise have had difficulty finding a job.
Jeff Fleming said:
“We are hoping to pay as many people as we can and then have more profit to continue on with the same sort of thing,”
The original article on the wral.com website can be found here