Seven Hills ASPiRE! offers innovative and creative programming that provides opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, autism, and brain injury to develop skills necessary to pursue interests in employment, recreation, and social interaction. ASPiRE! serves more than 500 individuals from the Central, North Central, and Metro West areas of MA each year, from three state-of-the art program facilities in the city of Worcester, as well as program sites in Devens and Hopedale. Programming includes Adult Day Health, Day Habilitation, and Community Based Day and Employment Programs.

The ASPiRE! Workforce Readiness and Employment Program serves as many as 250 participants each year. Our team uses developmentally appropriate curricula to help individuals with disabilities prepare for, obtain, and maintain their highest level of competitive employment. The program provides:

·      soft-skills development,

·      functional vocational assessments and career planning,

·      resumé development and mock interviews,

·      job-specific training and placement,

·      financial literacy education,

·      on-site job coaching,

·      long-term case management while employed.

Each day participants in the ASPiRE! Community-Based Day Support and Employment program participate in activities of choice that include offerings in art, technology and media, health and wellness, horticulture, life skills, vocational training, and more. Community connections and partnerships bring participants out into the community to access cultural, educational, and recreational activities, volunteer positions – and, in many cases, vocational training and supported employment opportunities.

In addition to community-based supported employment sites at places such as Affordable Interior Systems, National Grid,  Montachusett Opportunity Council, Meals on Wheels, Greenhill Farm, and Growing Places, ASPiRE! offers several microenterprises located at our historic Stearns Tavern and Hope Avenue program sites in Worcester, at Sweet Inspirations in Milford, MA, and at our Devens location. These sites provide innovative vocational training opportunities in cafe management, community gardening, hydroponics, food processing, customer service, facilities maintenance, landscaping, and hospitality.

A grant of $10,000 from the Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts (CFNCM) was recently received to strengthen and expand a previous CFNCM grant funded project that allowed ASPIRE Devens to establish a commercial-level food processing center.  This project partnered with Growing Places – a Leominster-based non-profit with a mission is to inspire and connect the North Central MA community to create equitable access to healthy food and environmental sustainability through education, collaboration and advocacy. Growing Places collaborates with the community to help process locally grown produce, strengthen the local food supply system, and deliver processed food products to individuals and families that are low- and moderate-income.

With this new micro-enterprise commercial-level food processing center in Devens now in place, we are well prepared to expand our capacity to provide paid internships both internally at the Devens site’s “microenterprise” – where participants will be producing dehydrating soup and dip mixes – as well as in related internships in the local community. This funding will support 20-30 hours of paid internships in the food processing industry for 10 participants at the ASPiRE! Devens site, or at a related business or organization in the north central region.  Thank you, CFNCM for this continued support!