Spotlight On

Mission:
SOC Enterprises seeks to assist, empower, and support people with disabilities to achieve employment, independence, and integration in the workplace and in the community.

SOC Enterprises assists persons with physical, mental, and behavioral disabilities to achieve their maximum social and vocational functioning and earned income. Its mission is achieved through the provision of vocational rehabilitation services, including on-site sheltered employment, off-site employment, and individual or group-supported employment.

Background:
SOC Enterprises is dedicated to assisting persons with physical, mental, or behavioral disabilities to increase self-sufficiency and improve their quality of life through vocational rehabilitation services, job readiness, and transitional and permanent employment. SOC Enterprises was founded in 1959 by a group of concerned parents who wanted their children with disabilities to become independent adults by learning job skills and finding meaningful employment. At that time, people with severe disabilities had limited work and community living options. They were more likely to be confined to an institution rather than be employed as a productive member of society.

Starting in a storefront, SOC provided simple assembly and packaging work for a handful of individuals. In its early years, SOC Enterprises established and operated the first local sheltered workshop for persons with mental disabilities and developed a group supported employment model for persons with disabilities.

Today, SOC Enterprises is one of the Washington DC metropolitan area’s largest community rehabilitation centers, providing job training, employment, workplace coaching, and supportive services to hundreds of adults. In fiscal year 2004, SOC provided services to 214 persons with disabilities and paid the highest average wages to persons with disabilities of any community rehabilitation provider in Virginia (over $3.2 million in wages and benefits).

Private and public sector businesses receive quality services through the application of long standing effective and efficient business practices and operations management. Everyone in the community benefits when an individual is provided the opportunity to learn, grow and move on. SOC's vocational rehabilitation services provide individuals the opportunity to achieve employment, independence and integration in their communities and at work.

Current Programs:
SOC’s rehabilitation services increase work and community skills, encourage self-sufficiency, and promote independence for persons with disabilities. SOC Enterprises has three major areas of programming:

• Competitive Employment Placement
  This program is geared toward persons with disabilities who are able to sustain employment in the private workforce with appropriate training and follow-up. Individualized services include career development, job seeking skills assistance, job development and matching, job placement and on-the-job training, life skills (i.e. transportation training and workplace standards), and long-term post-employment retention support. In FY 2003, SOC Enterprises placed seven individuals into competitive employment.

• Off-Site Group Supported Employment
  SOC Enterprises operates nine off-site work centers that offer commercial and government contracting services including mailrooms, copy centers, document processing, order centers, and fulfillment and distribution centers. These sites are a valuable transitional employment resource where trainees can master work skills in a supportive group environment while building an employment and salary history and access quality healthcare benefits. Trainees in this program also work closely with an Employment Specialist to increase community life skills and readiness.

  SOC provides Clerical Support Services at the following locations:

  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
    
  • Army Corps of Engineers
    
  • Bureau of Engraving & Printing
    
  • Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms
    
  • Federal Trade Commission
    
  • SOC Fulfillment Center (Private Contracts)
    
  • Food & Drug Administration
    
  • General Services Administration
    
  • Patent & Trademark Office
    
  • U.S. Geological Survey Center

• On-Site Sheltered Employment
  SOC Enterprises operates a traditional sheltered employment program at its main headquarters in Arlington and at its secondary location in Herndon. Contracting services include printing, binding, hand finishing, mailing, packaging, warehousing, and fulfillment. This program provides permanent employment as well as quality health care benefits for adults whose severe disabilities significantly reduce their options for competitive employment.

SOC Enterprises provides paid employment with benefits, job development, job coaching, job placement, skills training, on-the-job training, transportation training, and on-going support for people with disabilities.

Funding Needs:
Through the Independence Fund, individuals and corporations have the opportunity to make donations in support of the SOC mission. Contributions help SOC provide comprehensive rehabilitative services, life skills enrichment programs, on-the-job training and career development, and employment related transportation for people with severe to moderate physical and mental disabilities.

The "Spotlight On" highlights the activities of a different 501(c)3 nonprofit organization serving the Metropolitan Washington, DC community. The selection of organizations for the "Spotlight On" is based on criteria such as programmatic interests, geographic focus, and size, to ensure the broadest possible representation of the region's nonprofit sector.

If you'd like to see your NPO in the "Spotlight," e-mail a description of your organization, following the above format, to dclibrary@foundationcenter.org, with "Spotlight Submission" in the subject line.