YIC believes individuals with disabilities should have the same right as non-disabled individuals to have access to a full range of available employment opportunities and to earn a living wage in a job of their choosing based on their talents, skills, and interests. This includes access to quality training and employment services to aid individuals with disabilities in obtaining gainful employment in a field of their interest and choosing.

The current low participation rate of citizens with disabilities in the workforce is unacceptable. Access to “real jobs with real wages” is essential if citizens with disabilities are to avoid lives of poverty, dependence, and isolation. YIC believes that all working age individuals with disabilities can work in jobs fully integrated within the general workforce, working side-by-side with co-workers without disabilities earning a livable wage. As with all other individuals, employees with disabilities require assistance and support to ensure job success and should have access to supports necessary to succeed in the workplace.

YIC’s purpose is to give people with disabilities: 1) greater independence in their daily lives; 2) greater access to quality career skills training and employment services, assisting them in learning marketable industry skills to be able to secure and maintain competitive integrated employment; 3) access to innovative supports and services to meet existing and emerging needs in the areas of career skills training and employment; and 4) greater access to opportunities to work in non-sheltered settings.

The primary goal of YIC is to facilitate participants’ successful transition to life after high school into gainful employment. To achieve this goal, our program utilizes a person-centered planning model based on each individual’s needs, abilities, skills, personal interests and goals.