IDEATE, a business unit sponsored by national nonprofit Resources for Human Development, supports highly vulnerable, underserved individuals in the Philadelphia, PA area by providing job finding, business incubation, and job support to help individuals find and maintain their careers. In 2018, IDEATE received the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association (RCPA) award for Innovative Best Practices. IDEATE has a success rate of 80% for competitive job placement within 90 days from intake. Further, IDEATE serves as a business incubator and accelerator for fifteen self-employed individuals whose businesses have grown exponentially over the last decade providing vital community inclusion and wages. IDEATE opened a technology and fabrication laboratory (the Fab Lab @4700) dedicated specifically to the vocational technology support needs of our participants with significant mobility concerns and intellectual disabilities. They are small business owners who are funded by medicaid.
The first and only of its kind, innov8 is an accessible media production facility using Employment First programming and assistive technology. For these small business owners, the addition industry standard tools in conjunction with the assistive technology levels the playing field for individuals with the most complex needs and significant barriers.
These innovations are designed to align with Every Day Lives principles of choice, control, prosperity, and passion. These tools will enrich the marketing resources of these small business owners on par with larger, more resourced, non-disabled competitors and increases the business health, self-sufficiency, and wages for the small business owners IDEATE supports.
IDEATE’s mission is to confront both poverty and systemic inequity using technology and community inclusion. As such, IDEATE believes that individuals with disabilities should have access to the same rights, responsibilities, and remuneration as their non-disabled peers.
Kendra Brooks, City Council At-Large, Minority Leader joined the business owners to lend her support for the ribbon-cutting on this innovative endeavor.
