Gateway, a private not-for-profit rehabilitation program serving disabled individuals in the tri-county areas of Greenbrier, Monroe, and Pocahontas counties, was recently awarded a generous grant from the Louise R. Lester Foundation.
The Gateway program is designed to assess, train and assist program participants with finding and retaining both independent and supportive employment opportunities in their communities alongside of non-disabled counterparts.
Program participants unable to secure and retain work in the community are offered the chance to remain with Gateway and work and earn a modest income while receiving a host of supportive employment and socialization services. For this population, Gateway offers a new lease on life and a chance to break free from social isolation while becoming tax productive vs. tax consumptive citizens, who can begin to integrate into the community at large.
The grant is earmarked to assist Gateway address an ordinarily stabile operational budget, which was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, that resulted from some significant downtrends in the agency’s production, assembly and manufacturing revenue generated from working relationships with local businesses that were also deeply affected economically by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through the assistance and generosity of the Lester Foundation, Gateway will continue to provide all of its services without interruption, and is deeply grateful to be able to do so for this often overlooked population of individuals, who want little more than the chance to be a contributing members of society.
