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Congressman Lance Leonard Visits Flanders’ Entrepreneurial Business

October 17, 2016 | Press Release.pdf

Congressman Lance Leonard Visits Flanders’ Entrepreneurial Business

PRINCETON, NJ – Recently, Congressman Lance Leonard (NJ-07) visited Community Options’ Presents of Mind store in Flanders, NJ to learn about its business model and job training. Community Options (COI) is a national nonprofit that provides housing and employment support to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In addition to Presents of Mind, COI operates several other entrepreneurial businesses in the state of New Jersey that provide supported employment and job training for individuals.

“Presents of Mind and Community Options are teaming up to do great work in providing wonderful opportunities to people with disabilities to work and grow professionally,” said Congressman Leonard. “I very much enjoyed meeting and spending time with the customers and employees and being shown the work they do. It was great to see the teamwork, professional skills and collaboration being learned at Presents of Mind.”

Presents of Mind (POM), a boutique-style gift shop, opened in the Summer of 2008. POM currently employs 11 individuals supported by Community Options. At POM, individuals learn valuable workplace skills such as point of sale software, soft-selling and customer relations skills, retrieving and processing of orders received online, inventory management, store layout and design and different forms of presentation and display.

Community Options also runs a flower shop, Vaseful, in Edison. Employees learn credit card processing, taking phone orders, retrieving and processing of orders received through Vaseful’s website, shipping and distribution, inventory management, as well as floral processing and arranging. COI operates four Daily Plan Its (DPI), which is a complete office, conference and copy center that offers furnished office rental space or virtual tenancy to a variety of businesses. The DPI gives people with disabilities an opportunity to earn minimum wage or better, learn new skills and find employment in the community with their new skill set.

About Community Options, Inc.:

For over 25 years, Community Options has developed housing and employment programs for people with disabilities – serving thousands of people through 38 offices across 10 states. Community Options provides advocacy assistance to empower people with disabilities because all people – regardless of ability level – should live and work in the community with dignity, choice and self-determination.
For more information please visit our website: www.comop.org and to follow along with the ComOpCares campaign, search #ComOpCares on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.