Written by Em Rainer

This year, Project SEARCH- Menomonie looked a little different. 

Unfortunately, we had to leave our "home site" and were tasked with finding a new location during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the school year on the horizon, we were unsure where we were going to end up. 

L.E. Phillips Career Development Center gave us a home away from home. The CDC partnered with us and provided a location where interns would be able to work side-by-side with folks, a classroom, mentors, and an unbelievable amount of support. While we may not be here next year, we will forever be grateful to the CDC for opening its doors to us.

After a summer of hustle and bustle to prepare for the school year, the interns were able to join us in-person in September. Due to the pandemic, many sites across the country have been struggling with virtual classes and site closures. With support from the CDC, we have been able to stay open and serve our interns! Since September, our interns have been able to work within various departments including custodial, packaging and assembly, woodshop, administration, and the print shop! We continue to look forward to working with other departments as interns develop and master new skills. 

Project SEARCH is a nine-month internship program for young adults with disabilities. This program includes hands-on instruction and time in the classroom to learn employability skills. Interns in the program complete three rotations at a local business with the goal of gaining the necessary skills to obtain competitive employment. 

Check out our website, and Facebook! 

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​We are excited to bring in 2021 at the CDC Outreach Office.

2020 was a year of ups and downs and surprises in between.  We had a very busy year providing almost 3000 services to individuals over the year, services like emergency shelter, rent assistance, street outreach, food and hygiene, and Community Cupboard visits. Of those services we served 501 unique individuals. That means that the 3,000 services were provided to 501 different individuals/households. That’s a lot of people! Our 2019 data was about half of these numbers.

In 2020 we received several grants and many coat and warm weather item donations from our community. The Salvation Army in Chippewa Falls closed at the end of the year. From them we received a full size fridge and freezer so we can store frozen foods for donation. This will be great in the spring and summer when we get produce donations also. With that, we are also partnering with the Salvation Army for laundry and food services in the upcoming months. 
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We are currently working on revamping our office, expanding our donation and food pantry area and adding a computer station and private meeting area. In the spring will come the big project of cleaning and organizing our 900 sqft Community Cupboard! 

Like and Follow us on Facebook: ​www.facebook.com/CDCOutreachOffice

Written by Angela Kjellberg, Marketing Coordinator

Here is a great resource that will automatically connect you to AmazonSmile.​  

Smilematic is a free Chrome extension that will automatically turn your everyday Amazon purchases into AmazonSmile donations.  Not a Chrome user?  Smilematic Also supports Safari, Firefox & Edge.

Here's the tool: https://couponfollow.com/smilematic

Smilematic will automatically redirect our supporters to our charity every time, so you'll never miss out on a donation again to the L.E. Phillips Career Development Center.

Thank you for your support! 

"Working Together To Make A Difference."