PHILADELPHIA, Pa.\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u00a0Today,\u00a0Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) Secretary Nancy A. Walker\u00a0visited the Philabundance\u00a0Community Kitchen to spend time with more than a dozen young adults who are gaining real-world work experience while also making a difference in their community. The students are employed through\u00a0MY Work, a summer program for high school students with disabilities created by L&I\u2019s\u00a0Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR)\u00a0to match students with job opportunities and work experience in their local municipalities.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery summer, I\u2019m inspired by the determination, talent, and enthusiasm of the students in the MY Work program. This visit to Philabundance highlights the impact MY Work is making not only on the students participating, but also on thousands of local children who are able to have breakfast and lunch thanks to the work being done at the organization\u2019s community kitchen,\u201d said Secretary Walker. \u201cPrograms like this don\u2019t just build skills, they build confidence, instill purpose, and provide real opportunity. I am thankful to have the Governor and First Lady as such strong champions of OVR\u2019s work, and their continued support is helping to provide Pennsylvanians with disabilities access to meaningful employment and brighter futures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Governor Josh Shapiro\u2019s\u00a0proposed 2025-26 budget<\/a>\u00a0calls for an additional $5 million investment in OVR, which helps people of all ages with disabilities find employment through personalized services such as vocational counseling and guidance, goal setting, training, and job placement. OVR also offers a variety of other supports that enable a person with a disability to be successful in the competitive labor market. The proposed investment would play a key role in helping OVR continue to offer the\u00a0MY Work\u00a0program, as well as many other crucial services.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Since program year 2016, more than 478,500 Pennsylvanians have received services from OVR, including vocational counseling, evaluations, medical diagnostic services, medical restoration services, employment training, placement services, and career support services.\u00a0<\/p>\n This summer, OVR has connected more than 500 students with paid work experiences at 100 worksites across 57 counties. In partnership with Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP\u00ae) \u2013 a 50-year-old Harrisburg-based nonprofit that partners with public systems to provide community-based wraparound and behavioral health services as an alternative to residential care and incarceration \u2013 OVR has helped 17 students get hired at the Philabundance\u00a0Community Kitchen. The students are helping make sandwiches, pack meals, and label boxes as part of Philabundance\u2019s LunchBox 2025 program, which is providing 40,000 lunches and 20,000 breakfasts to local children this summer to meet the meal gaps for students who typically rely on meals at school and are currently home for the summer with no access to school lunches.<\/p>\n \u201cPhilabundance is deeply grateful for the YAP and OVR volunteers who help us not only pack meals but also feed our community through our Summer LunchBox Program,\u201d said Loree D. Jones Brown, CEO of Philabundance. \u201cOne in six children in our region are food insecure. For many children, school meals provide nourishment they may not be able to receive at home. This partnership enables us to close the summer meal gap and deliver on our mission to drive hunger from our community today and end hunger for good.\u201d<\/p>\n This is the fourth year for YAP\u00ae and OVR\u2019s partnership; together in that time, they\u2019ve supported more than 300 young people through the MY Work program. In addition to the students working at Philabundance, two students are employed through MY Work as assistant art counselors at West Park Cultural Center.<\/p>\n \u201cYAP\u00ae is thrilled to partner with Philabundance and the West Park Cultural Center again this year,\u201d said YAP\u00ae\u00a0My Work Program Manager Chanel Summers. \u201cPartnerships with these organizations and others provide opportunities for young people to gain an immense amount of confidence, valuable job readiness skills, and become more self-sufficient. We are simultaneously building a stronger Pennsylvania workforce for the future. The YAP\u00ae implementation of MY Work has been highly impactful in supporting program participants in their endeavors and broadening their scope of career choices that helps lead to fulfilling and productive futures.\u201d<\/p>\n Piloted in nine municipalities throughout Allegheny County in 2016, the\u00a0MY Work\u00a0initiative established a collaboration between OVR, local education agencies, local government, and non-profit organizations, providing paid work experiences for 50 high school students. In 2021,\u00a0MY\u00a0Work\u00a0was expanded across the Commonwealth, providing more high school students with disabilities paid work experiences to help them gain essential skills that allow them to become successfully employed in a competitive integrated environment following graduation. To date, more than 2,000 students have participated in the MY Work program since its statewide expansion.<\/p>\n OVR covers the\u00a0MY Work\u00a0program’s wages for all student workers, with no cost to the municipality. Additionally, OVR has developed work readiness guidance that includes soft skills training and interview preparation to assist participants in a variety of fields, including beautification projects, children’s programming, and customer service.<\/p>\n MY Work\u00a0also helps students build independent living skills, learn\u00a0effective communication skills, manage a paycheck, and more. Worksite training and on-site supports are provided to students by Community Rehabilitation Providers (CRPs), which are funded by OVR.<\/p>\n Governor Shapiro\u00a0is committed to investing in Pennsylvania\u2019s workforce and ensuring all Pennsylvanians have access to real opportunities. In his 2025-26 budget proposal, the Governor is calling for continued bold workforce investments. Some key highlights of his budget plan include:<\/p>\n $3.5 million\u00a0for the\u00a0Schools-to-Work Program, helping students transition into high-demand careers;$5 million\u00a0to create\u00a0the\u00a0Nurse Shortage Assistance Program\u00a0to recruit, train, and retain the next generation of nursing professionals; and$10 million\u00a0to expand\u00a0apprenticeship programs, offering more earn-as-you-learn opportunities to build a skilled workforce.<\/p>\n For more information on the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, please visit\u00a0the\u00a0website\u00a0<\/a>or follow L&I on\u00a0Instagram<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0X<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n # # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA, Pa.\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u00a0Today,\u00a0Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) Secretary Nancy A. Walker\u00a0visited the Philabundance\u00a0Community Kitchen to spend time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[28,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-18619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jobs","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-jobs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}