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Out and About in the Community with Services To Enhance Potential
BY GRETCHEN STILL
GETTING OUT AND ABOUT in the community is always a favorite for our Members at Services To Enhance Potential (STEP). From delivering meals to homebound seniors with Meals on Wheels in Westland, Redford and Downriver, to creating blankets for children in hospitals with Fleece & Thank You, to gardening at the Grosse Ile Community Gardens, to organizing the food pantry at Lighthouse Mission in Westland, our Members at STEP love to give back to the community.
When our Members are not out in the community volunteering, they have the option to join weekly outing groups that visit local parks, libraries, athletic centers, museums, bowling alleys, and movie theatres. In FY2022-2023, we had over 590 members participate in over 5,700 hours of community engagement and this number is expected to grow in 2024!
Engaging in our local community is an important aspect of job readiness and building independence. Aside from the inter-personal skills learned, building comfort in the community is critical for successful job placement. The tasks performed in each of these places can vary, but it is always with the goal of creating a personal connection between people and the communities that they live and work in.
Services To Enhance Potential (STEP) is a nonprofit organization which provides support and services to nearly 1,400 persons with disabilities and other mental health needs in Macomb, Washtenaw, and Wayne Counties. A major goal of Services To Enhance Potential is to increase the number of persons who are employed, self-employed, and volunteer in their communities. STEP provides and supports a variety of employment and self-employment options. We were founded in 1972 to bring an employment focus to individuals with a disability and have developed a strong reputation in the community for doing so.
For more information about the programs that STEP offers, please visit www.stepcentral.org.
