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October 1, 2018   ·   0 Comments

Community Living Dufferin seeking VOTES to obtain $10,000.00 for their Entrepreneurial Succession Plan for Car Detailing

We are a not for profit organization that supports people with developmental disabilities both residentially and vocationally. 

The nature of our business is to provide opportunities for the people we support and for the people of Dufferin County.

40 years ago Community Living organizations across the province operated furniture refinishing, cafeterias, packaging and other small businesses, however they were not true small business they were viewed as sheltered workshops; ours was named QPAC (Quality, Packaging and Assembly co).

The trend moving forward for people with developmental disabilities is for them to have full time, minimum wage jobs in their community just like you and I might. 

The Ontario government ordered the closure of all sheltered workshops effective December 2018 and our QPAC will close its doors on December 13, 2018. We understand it was with the best intentions, however after we placed those QPAC employees we could into completive jobs and volunteer opportunities in the community, there still remains a group of people who liked the idea of coming to QPAC, being with their friends and making a bit of money and they will have difficulties adapting to and working in a different environment, like a community job. These people are finding it difficult to adjust to the new world order for a variety of physical and emotional reasons.

Our plan is to assist this group of people to create their own businesses based on their interests and expertise catering to the community in which they live.

We see there is a market in our community for artisans and some of the people we support are very talented. We see a tremendous market for the products they are presently producing including photography, greeting cards, jewellery and pottery and we plan to help them grow those businesses through the creation of an e-commerce site on our Community Living Dufferin website.

However, the first entrepreneurial venture we will be promoting is a car detailing business operated out of the old QPAC warehouse which we own.

The warehouse space is perfectly suited to hosting a car detailing shop for people we support, where they can work at their own pace, and learn how to run a business to earn their own pay.

This will provide a number of people with employment opportunities and with support from staff, an education in how to operate a business from start-up costs, to material costing, promotion, accounting and customer service.

The people we support have a passion for working and engaging in their community, with the closure of our QPAC space they will not be provided that opportunity any longer. It’s the goal of Community Living Dufferin to ensure that everyone who wants to work, will in fact continue to work; the bonus being that they will work for themselves and each other through a co-operative, entrepreneurial venture that will transcend into other areas of employment as they learn from the experience and gain the confidence that this business will afford them.

$10,000.00 in funding from the Aviva Community Fund will assist these entrepreneurs with the start-up of a new business and allow them to market and promote their business to their community.

In order to receive the $10,000.00 we must garner THE most votes and so we are asking you  to take a moment to register and VOTE for them.

https://www.avivacommunityfund.org/voting/project/view/18-322    Click the “Register” button on the right, enter your info, you’ll receive a confirmation email and can then cast your 10 votes for our Entrepreneurial Succession Plan.

“Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success.” Shiv Kera

With our thanks, Community Living Dufferin

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