The inclusion model promotes employment, job training and volunteer opportunities for individuals with developmental, physical and/or mental health disabilities. It also provides training to current employees to build a more inclusive and collaborative environment.
Overall, the program will offer training to more than 26,000 Mercy employees at the health system’s hospitals in Fort Smith and Rogers, Ark.; Crystal City, Joplin, Springfield and St. Louis, Mo.; and Oklahoma City.
Mercy and the Kessler Foundation, a public charity dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with disabilities, will also partner with a team of researchers at New Brunswick, N.J.-based Rutgers University to study the methodology behind Mercy’s model and share best practices within Mercy and other health systems.
“Mercy has a long tradition of recognizing that society’s ‘disabled’ are actually people who are simply gifted differently,” said Lynn Britton, Mercy’s president and CEO. “Creating meaningful job opportunities for men and women with disabilities offers them the hope and dignity of financial self-sufficiency, while enriching our organization with their unique perspectives and gifts.”
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