HUDSON COMMUNITY ENTERPRISES
Hudson Community Enterprises is a non-profit organization based in Jersey City, New Jersey. The organization was originally founded in 1957 as a community rehabilitation program and for most of the years since its inception has focused its efforts in the area of vocational rehabilitation services for individuals with disabilities. It has also relied on an approach that utilized the provision of these services through work secured from the local business community as the methodology of treatment to improve the work skills of enrolled participants.
HCE is one of 28 similar programs in the state of New Jersey. Although the missions of the organizations are fairly consistent, each operates programs and services that correspond to the unique needs of their geographic area and the individuals in their respective programs.
Although HCE’s mission has remained constant, “to create employment opportunities for community residents”, its programs, services, and customers have expanded to meet the needs of its community. With a staff of 50, the agency offers a range of education, training, and employment services for youth with disabilities exiting school, adults with disabilities in its vocational rehabilitation programs, as well as community residents facing other barriers to employment, i.e. welfare. This past year 641 individuals participated in its programs leading to employment. Since its inception in 1957, the organization has placed 3,500 community residents into employment.
The organization’s prime mission since its inception in 1957 has been to create employment opportunities for residents of Hudson County with disabilities as well as residents facing other barriers to employment. The organization has done this and done it effectively. In the past three years on an annual basis the agency has placed in each of those years approximately 80 individuals into employment. During those years it provided facility based employment for 140 individuals on an annual basis. And, in each of those years, HCE provided follow-along job retention services for 60 individuals with disabilities employed in the business sector as a result of placement by HCE.
In recent years, changes in the demographics of the community have caused Hudson Community Enterprises to look at models of both employment preparation and employment itself. As a result of this analysis, HCE initiated an expansion of its current approach to employment preparation by the adoption of a social enterprise model. Using this model, HCE will rely on the experience that it has honed over the years to develop a new structure that leverages the agency’s current sources of funds and draws in new funding to give the agency the resources needed to get the job done.
