Champlain Community Services
About Champlain Community Services
Champlain Community Services (CCS) provides essential service to people with intellectual disabilities and autism, building a community where everyone participates and everyone belongs. A nonprofit organization, CCS offers individualized and carefully coordinated supports in the workplace, at school, at home, and in the community. CCS is a Specialized Services Agency, focused on employment and career development, within the State of Vermont’s Developmental Services System.
Way2Work supported employment program offers a unique continuum of employment supports: pre-vocational experiences in our Bridging program for high school students, to school-to-employment transitions for graduating or transitioning students through School2Work, to adult employment and career development supports from first job through retirement. CCS also offers self-employment supports, helping entrepreneurs with disabilities launch micro-businesses.
CCS also provides home and shared living supports and community supports based on consumer-driven goals developed in annual individual service agreements.
CCS hosts and provides co-facilitation to Champlain Voices Self-Advocacy group.
Champlain Community Services
Contact
Elizabeth Sightler, Executive Director - [email protected] |
|
512 Troy Avenue, Colchester, VT 05446 |
Directions
From I-89 North take exit 15 onto VT Route 15 East.
Follow Route 15 for 1.4 miles. You will pass St. Michaels College, Fanny Allen Hospital, and Camp Johnson.
The Fort Ethan Allen is the next stoplight after Camp Johnson. Turn left onto Barnes Avenue into the Fort (there is a left-hand turn arrow at the stoplight).
Follow Barnes Avenue until you reach the Dead End sign. At the dead end sign, turn right onto Troy Avenue.
Follow Troy Avenue to the end, we are the last building on the right. There is a play area in front for the daycare center and a large wooden sign that says Champlain Community Services.
We are on the second floor.
Coverage area
Northwestern Vermont, primarily Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle Counties
Outcomes & Innovations
Twelve high school students completed the year-long Bridging program at CCS, gaining valuable pre-vocational, community engagement, and personal development experiences.
Way2Work made 19 new job placements in FY2018, with 77% of CCS consumers employed.
Way2Work participants earned more than $168,000 in collective wages and generated an SSI savings of nearly $76,000.
CCS presented an innovative event, in a unique partnership with Say It forward Productions and Burlington City Arts (BCA), called “Belonging: An Evening of Stories.” Presented in the style of “The Moth” the evening gave voice to consumers and support providers to share deeply personal stories of belonging with the wider community.
Community Partnerships
CCS partners with dozens of area employers, across all sectors of the economy, to help them find productive employees, while pursuing their workforce diversity goals. We are members of the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce and Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR).
United Way of Northwest Vermont invests in our Way2Work program.
We partner with Burlington, Colchester, Mt. Mansfield Union, South Burlington, and Winooski High Schools on our Bridging program for high school students with disabilities.
CCS partners with Think College Vermont and the UVM Center on Disability and Community Inclusion.
CCS is currently collaborating with UVM Medical Center in a Public Health Partnership, with medical students assessing the contributions of our work to healthy communities.