Nonprofit Uses Tech Donation to Help Disabled Persons Find Jobs
Networks for Training and Development (NTD) is a nonprofit dedicated to promoting inclusive communities through quality training, consultation, and practice for individuals with disabilities, families, businesses, and neighborhoods. NTD collaborates with Philadelphia's Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS). For the past several years, it has supported Philadelphia's Vision for Employment initiative, which strives to increase employment among persons with disabilities in the region. There are 27 organizations funded through Philadelphia DBHIDS that assist persons with disabilities to find employment.
The department tasked NTD with implementing a data system to track the program's processes and outcomes. Each organization uses Microsoft Excel to submit its data. NTD then imports this data into a Microsoft Access database to analyze. Every quarter, Philadelphia DBHIDS emails an NTD-prepared report to each organization. Using Microsoft technologies, NTD has been able to provide these 27 organizations with information related to the types of jobs being found throughout the system for the people they support. It also provides the average wages that each of their members are earning. Data collection for these organizations is very important and has been implemented throughout the system. Other organizations are now looking into initiating similar systems.
