Walmart Gift Supports The Arc Baltimore’s Career Development Program

The Arc Baltimore has received a $25,000 gift from the Walmart Foundation’s State Giving Program to support its Career Catalyst employee development initiative. 

The Arc Baltimore recently launched its Career Catalyst program in Hunt Valley, MD “to provide localized, grassroots job development, an intensive job readiness education curriculum, and career interest-driven internships for adults with developmental disabilities,” says Doug McQuade, Assistant Executive Director, Employment and Day Services, at The Arc Baltimore. 

The Walmart Foundation’s State Giving Program provides direct support to address the needs of the communities it serves and make a significant social impact within its core areas of giving: hunger relief and healthy eating; sustainability; career opportunity; and women’s economic empowerment. In 2013, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation gave $1.3 billion in cash and in-kind contributions around the world, surpassing 2012's total by more than $244 million.

The Arc Baltimore – which currently supports more than 6,000 Baltimore City and Baltimore County residents with developmental disabilities and their families – started the Career Catalyst program to be a “win-win for both participants seeking viable employment and local businesses in need of dedicated, hard-working employees,” explains McQuade.

According to McQuade, the core of the Career Catalyst program is vocational evaluation, through which “the needs, interests, and skills of participants are explored in order to properly assess how they can be supported in career paths of their choosing.” The end result is an Exploratory Career Assessment that recommends career areas, as well as specific tasks and environments that would lead to successful employment.

From that point, program participants will intern at a variety of companies in the Hunt Valley business community. Each person's internship is built on a match of the demands of the internship placement and the individual’s talents and preferences, as determined by their vocational evaluation.

An important companion to the internship is classroom skill development and employment education, which prepares interns for the working world and helps them learn from their daily experiences. Interns attend daily class and, work schedules permitting, meet as a group to share concerns and experiences for group discussion.

“After several intern experiences, each job seeker will have a good idea of what they like to do and will have built a resume of experiences and skills, along with recommendations from supervisors from host businesses,” notes McQuade. From that point, job coaches will help Career Catalyst participants search for opportunities, complete applications, and provide interview skill training.

The Arc Baltimore has already established partnerships with the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce, the Community College of Baltimore County, the Hunt Valley Business Opportunity Network, and the Hunt Valley Business Forum to assist in establishing internships in a variety of industries.

Career Catalyst’s annual goal is to provide individualized job training services to 20 working-age individuals with disabilities, resulting in full-time employment with fair wages and benefits.

The Arc Baltimore intends for the initial Hunt Valley program to lay the groundwork for replicating the initiative in other business communities throughout the region on an ongoing basis.

For more information about the Career Catalyst program or any of The Arc Baltimore’s other initiatives to support individuals with developmental disabilities and their families, visit www.thearcbaltimore.org.