Vandelay Industries Grant Assessment: Ethan Lazuk

Goal: Write a sample grant for a Van to support the Gateways to Greatness Program. This program teaches life skills, community involvement and can include work experience. I have also included a brochure about the program. The goal is to take students out into the community to increase their independence through work and education.

Project Title: Gateways to Greatness Program

What community issues will your project/program idea address and why?Our mission statement at Vandelay Industries of New York City is to serve “adults with disabilities and disadvantages by providing life-changing opportunities to achieve independence.”

The Gateways to Greatness Program provides independence to adults with developmental disabilities. We address the disadvantages that these adults face in our community through activities designed for life skills development. Disadvantages to developmentally disabled adults can include barriers to employment and a lower quality of life. To best accomplish our objective of providing independence, Vandelay Industries of NYC requires a van to fulfill the transportation needs of the Gateways to Greatness Program. Adequate transportation ensures that every participant has the best chance to achieve independence because they are receiving the highest possible level of enrichment.

What effect do these issues have on quality of life in SWFL?Adults with developmental disabilities are excluded from the fulfilling experiences of employment and social interaction in our community. These adults not only lack the basic fundamentals of job training and technology skills, but their lives are nearly devoid of any sources of encouragement that raise their self-esteem. As a result of these disadvantages, developmentally disabled adults have a diminished quality of life. We at Vandelay Industries of NYC are seeking to reconcile this through our Gateways to Greatness Program, which will ultimately strengthen the integrity and equality of our community.

What is your project/program idea's theory of change?The diminished quality of life for adults with developmental disabilities in New York City is based on their lack of independence. The less disadvantaged they are, the more independent these adults become in our community. The Gateways to Greatness Program includes group classes that provide these adults with practical education to reduce their disadvantages, enhance their job and technology skills, and increase their self-esteem and social knowledge. Since these training classes address specific disadvantages faced by developmentally disabled adults, participants complete our program with a newfound sense of independence, which is supported by real-life experiences and employable skills like money handling and journalism.

What are your target groups (e.g., environment, people in poverty, disabilities, artists, etc.)?The selection criteria for the Gateways to Greatness Program includes adults ages 21 and over who have completed high school and meet the Federal Criteria for Developmental Disability. Special consideration will be given to applicants at least 18 years of age who are enrolled as High School Transitional students and wish to participate during their summer break.

Vandelay Industries Grant Assessment: Ethan Lazuk

Participants are ambulatory or mobile through the use of wheelchairs, amigo carts or crutches, and are able to meet their personal needs for dressing, feeding and hygiene. Excluded are applicants with communicative diseases, behavioral issues, felony records, or illicit drug habits. Vandelay Industries of NYC and the Gateways to Greatness Program make no discriminations based on race, creed, color, sex, national origin, or veteran status.

Please describe the assets (programs, expertise, networks, tools, personnel, facilities,) the applicant and partners will contribute to encourage these changes?Mallory Sweeney, who is the Disability Support Services Program Manager at Vandelay Industries of New York City, oversees the Gateways to Greatness Program. Megan has five years of work experience in the field of developmental disabilities, including four years spent with the Association for the Developmental Disabilities in Dover, Delaware. Under Mallory's supervision are trained professionals who specialize in teaching life skills development. There is one instructor for every ten participants. These small class sizes ensure that participants receive individualized attention, which increases their chances to achieve independence.

Classes are taught in the Vandelay Greatness Center in Brooklyn, New York, as well as in other locations throughout our community. The Opportunity Center was recently completed in late 2013. This new complex houses the educational and business infrastructure necessary for us at Vandelay Industries to effectively serve our entire NYC community. Participants in the Gateways to Greatness Program enjoy the amenities of a modern facility and all of the educational tools that accompany it.

What activities will be performed to encourage these changes?Participants in the Gateways to Greatness Program spend every weekday (9:30am-3:30pm) doing activities that reinforce life skills development and ultimately lead to independence.

Each day consists of five activities. The first activity (9:30am-11am) is predicated on educating participants in a specific field of knowledge. The full-spectrum of this knowledge includes science projects, journalism, self-advocacy and rights, and fine arts. Second is an hour of physical activity (11am-12pm), including yoga, zumba, basketball, and soccer; except for Tuesdays and Thursdays, which are book reading and glee club, respectively.

Our objective to provide independence permeates all aspects of the Gateways to Greatness Program, as even lunchtime (12pm-1pm) includes delegating clean-up tasks to participants. Employment and independent responsibility are the focuses of the fourth activity (1pm-2:30pm), where participants learn such skills as financial management, practical use of technology, resume writing, or how to properly consider health and safety in their community. Each day of activities ends the same way with one hour of personal enrichment (2:30pm-3:30pm). During this time, participants choose their own activity from an approved list, therefore reaffirming and reinforcing their independence daily.

The purpose of having a van is to facilitate the efficacy of the above-mentioned activities for our participants. In the Gateways to Greatness Program, our ability to provide enrichment to participants is constrained by our resources. Adequate transportation ensures efficiency, which in turn ensures that our participants receive the highest possible level of enrichment.

Vandelay Industries Grant Assessment: Ethan Lazuk

What is the timeframe and total budget required to implement the project/program idea? The Gateways to Greatness Program is divided into four quarters throughout the year, which are associated with the seasons, including spring, summer, fall, and winter quarters. Each quarter includes two months of activities from 9:30am until 3:30pm every weekday. The Fall Quarter in 2014, for example, occurred from September 2nd until November 28th, while the Winter Quarter began on December 1st and ends on February 27th of this year.

Costs associated with the Gateways to Greatness Program are proportionate to the number of participants. Each participant funds his or her individual program costs through an admissions fee. Although participants can cover their admissions fee with a private income-sensitive payment, there are additional funding options, including vocational rehabilitation, an employment enhancement plan, or the New York Medicaid Developmental Disability Waiver. Developmentally disabled adults tend to be economically disadvantaged, so their ability to contribute to program costs cannot exceed the most fundamental resources necessary to conduct the program activities. Since our transportation needs are an additional concern to be addressed by outside funding, we are obliged to request your financial assistance to purchase a van.

What amount is being requested?The basic requirements we have for a van are dependability and handicap accessibility—because some of our participants are limited to wheelchairs, amigo carts, or crutches for mobility. Additionally, in the NYC region, a functioning heater and air conditioning in an automobile is essential. With that said, we are requesting $7,500 for a van. That price will include the purchase of a used handicap-accessible van of around 10 years old that is either immediately ready for use or that can be made ready with remaining funds after the purchase. The amount requested is derived from a database of the average sold prices—not the asking prices—of handicap-accessible vans listed online by reputable sellers within the last calendar year.

The criteria for this database includes used vans of around 10 years old with handicap accessibility, functioning air conditioning, and no major mechanical defects. Based on this data, a conservative range for a van to meet our needs is between $5,000 and $10,000. We are requesting the median amount from that range, which is $7,500.

We at Vandelay Industries of New York City are proud of our Gateways to Greatness Program, and we take equal pride in the dramatic effect it has on the quality of life and independence of developmentally disabled adults in our community. With your help, we can increase the benefits of this program to their highest potential, while providing independence to more of the developmentally disabled adults in our beautiful NYC community.

Please accept our sincerest thanks for your consideration.