new review<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0City\u2019s\u00a0ATWORK program, which\u00a0for\u00a0nearly a\u00a0decade has\u00a0supported\u00a0people with disabilities across the five boroughs\u00a0to\u00a0enter the workforce\u00a0through job placement\u00a0and other employment\u00a0services. The\u00a0review found\u00a0that while\u00a0ATWORK\u00a0has\u00a0successfully\u00a0provided\u00a0these\u00a0services to\u00a0hundreds\u00a0of New Yorkers,\u00a0its impact has been limited by fragmented\u00a0resources\u00a0and\u00a0insufficient\u00a0data tracking.\u00a0To\u00a0strengthen\u00a0the program and expand its reach, the report recommends\u00a0expanding\u00a0resources, improving performance\u00a0tracking,\u00a0and removing barriers to employment so the program can connect more New Yorkers with disabilities to jobs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cEvery New Yorker deserves the opportunity to find meaningful work, and that includes ensuring people with disabilities have the support they need to succeed in the workforce,\u201d said\u00a0City Comptroller Mark Levine.\u00a0\u201cJob placement programs like\u00a0ATWORK\u00a0help connect New Yorkers\u00a0with\u00a0consolidated\u00a0resources\u00a0while\u00a0strengthening\u00a0families,\u00a0communities\u00a0and our local economy.\u00a0As we undertake the hard-but-necessary work of making government more efficient, strengthening\u00a0proven\u00a0programs like ATWORK must be part of the conversation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
ATWORK, which has been situated within the Mayor\u2019s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) since 2017, operates to recruit, pre-screen, and connect New Yorkers with disabilities to jobs and internships with established business partners in both the public and private sectors. To qualify for the program, job seekers must be: 18 years of age or older; have a documented disability; reside in the five boroughs; have career goals, resumes and cover letters; basic interviewing skills; and must be motivated to conduct a job search independently. ATWORK provides a host of services for New Yorkers with disabilities, such as reviewing resumes and cover letters, conducting interview preparation workshops and mock interviews, communicating with potential employers on the status of applications, and maintaining regular contact with job seekers throughout the search process. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The Comptroller\u2019s review of ATWORK, which examined FY 2024 and\u00a0FY 2025,\u00a0made several determinations about the program, including:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Success Despite Challenges. Although ATWORK has just six dedicated staff members, they were able to\u00a0provide\u00a0services\u00a0to\u00a01,268 people with disabilities and\u00a0connected\u00a099\u00a0of those\u00a0individuals\u00a0to\u00a0employment.\u00a0ATWORK staff also hosted more than five dozen workshops, conducted more than 200 mock interviews,\u00a0and hosted seven job fairs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Limited Resources, Limited Impact. The 1,268 people supported through ATWORK represented just 4% of\u00a0the 35,000 New Yorkers with disabilities seeking employment. That reflected a limited impact among\u00a0other City initiatives for\u00a0these individuals\u00a0to\u00a0assist\u00a0them\u00a0to\u00a0find work.\u00a0MOPD also cited a lack of funding and staffing, hindering its ability to fill key positions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lack of Effective Data Tracking.\u00a0MOPD did not have an effective tracking system to\u00a0monitor\u00a0the number of people who were\u00a0enrolled in the program, those who had been\u00a0connected to jobs,\u00a0and\u00a0in active status with\u00a0the Office\u00a0at any given time. This hindered the agency\u2019s ability\u00a0to effectively\u00a0track\u00a0its program performance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Demographic Imbalance. An analysis found that the ethnicity of those finding employment through the program was disproportionate to their percentage of the population.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Comptroller\u2019s\u00a0Office made several recommendations,\u00a0with\u00a0which MOPD agreed, to strengthen the effectiveness of ATWORK. Those include:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Work with the City Council to secure funding to expand ATWORK\u2019s effectiveness, as well as\u00a0to\u00a0provide\u00a0additional\u00a0services.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Improve tracking\u00a0key performance indicators to fully evaluate the impact of ATWORK.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Address demographic imbalances by expanding Spanish-language outreach to potential job seekers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reduce misunderstandings about the services ATWORK provides and\u00a0better explain\u00a0that participation may not guarantee employment, as well as conduct\u00a0annual surveys with participants to understand their perspective on the program\u2019s impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Assess what skills gaps exist between job seekers and opportunities, then develop a strategy to confront them.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Collaborate\u00a0with City agencies as well as employer partners to remove clear barriers to employment for New Yorkers with disabilities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The full review is available here:\u00a0https:\/\/comptroller.nyc.gov\/reports\/review-of-the-nyc-atwork-program\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 29, 2026 Report finds program has successfully connected hundreds of New Yorkers with disabilities to jobs but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-308949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}