Two local organizations team up
The “Countdown for the Cause” is an event that will focus on raising awareness of the needs of individuals with all types of disabilities in Williamson County. This event is a fund-raiser to benefit individuals in Williamson County with disabilities as well as families supporting a person with a disability in their home. To find out more about this great event, Click Here. You can also purchase tickets online, Click Here.
The event benefits The ARC of Williamson County and The GEAR Foundation. Read more about these great organizations below:
About The Arc of Williamson County
www.thearcofwilliamsoncounty.org
The Arc of Williamson County is an IRS Section 501 c 3 not-for-profit organization that was begun in 1957. The Arc is a family based organization committed to securing for all people with disabilities the opportunity to choose and realize their goals of where and how they live, learn, work, and play. Programs include social recreation, advocacy, support coordination and family support.
The Arc of Williamson County is further committed to supporting, empowering, and improving the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and their families through advocacy, research, and education services.
The Arc of Williamson County encourages and promotes inclusion within communities where people with disabilities are physically present and participate fully with people without disabilities as they live, learn, work, and play.
The Arc of Williamson County is affiliated with The Arc of Tennessee and The Arc of the United States.
About the GEAR Foundation
www.thegearfoundation.org
The GEAR Foundation was created in 2003 as a direct result of Founder Dave Krikac’s personal experience as a parent of a special needs child. Organized as a 501c(3), GEAR has established itself as a major force helping families plan for the time when parents would no longer be there to support special needs young people. It provides job training, personal coaching and employment opportunities to its young clients. In addition, clients are able to live successful, productive lives using earned incomes to assist their families and sustain themselves.
In mid-2004, the Foundation launched “Our Thrift Store”, a multi-purpose facility located in a low-income neighborhood in Franklin that creates employment for the target population, special needs clients ages 18 and older. In only 15 months, its retail operation became the nucleus of the Foundation a place of nurturing, training, education and work.
Along with a thorough skills assessment, each client is provided with job coaching and hands-on work opportunities that include interacting with the public. Our clients have various disabilities. Some are in wheelchairs, some with Down’s syndrome, while others have mental or physical handicaps. The Founder’s own daughter, Sara, is now part GEAR’s twenty-eight person team.
Some of The GEAR Foundation’s Major Accomplishments include:
1. The Foundation’s Leadership Team has developed many business partnerships to support disabled young adults in Williamson County and has built a base of supporters and volunteers, locally and nationally through the organizations reputation as a dependable employment provider, assisting the disabled, improving their lives and the lives of their families.
2. GEAR launched the “Our Thrift Store” in April 2004 as the nucleus for training, assessments, and jobs creation and the major source of income for GEAR and in September 2006, it opened the second award-winning facility, “Our Fulfillment Center”, focusing on employment of its wheelchair bound clients.
3. GEAR has created partnerships with education organizations and job counselors such as 3 Williamson County Schools TN Department of Labor.
4. The organization has become a charitable resource to other 7 area non-profits (such as Bridges, Mercy Ministries, New Life Drug Rehab Program, United Way and Goodwill Industries), donating free clothing and other items, thus promoting its own philanthropy vision.
5. It has created a recycling program for aluminum cans, teaching clients and the public to conserve natural resources and reuse materials.
6. It has built supportive relationships with area media contacts that consistently feature articles and Public Service Announcements about the Foundation and its programs and successes.
7. In 2006 and again in 2008, it received the “Shining Apple Award” from the Williamson County School System, in the Business and Industry Category.
