NJ first lady tours offices of Morristown nonprofit
NJBIZ – THE DAILY article .pdf – By Beth Fitzgerald – Friday, September 17, 2010
N.J. first lady tours offices of Morristown nonprofit
New Jersey first lady Mary Pat Christie on Friday toured a Morristown nonprofit that provides jobs for people with disabilities, doing office work and building
maintenance for the small businesses that rent office space at the “Daily Plan It,” a social enterprise run by Community Options of Princeton.
“They are doing great things, and in my role as first lady, I want to highlight these programs,” Christie said. She chatted with a dozen Daily Plan It workers doing paperwork for a client of the facility.
On her tour, Christie met George C. Koenig, president of Senior Home Care Services, which has been rented offices at the Daily Plan-It for the past 10 years.
“These folks here do God’s work, they really do,” Koenig said. He said he is impressed with how the Community Options staff treats the individuals — many of whom have developmental disabilities — employed there. “That is one of the reasons we opened up our company here.”
Christie said Community Options seeks “to empower people with disabilities who fall through the cracks. They are trying to make what they’re doing self sustaining” by
helping people with disabilities use “any kind of talents they have to give themselves pride, and also make them productive members of society.”
Community Options founder Robert Stack said rents paid by the 14 business tenants in Morristown — and by the 25 businesses that occupy a similar facility in Princeton — cover all costs, including wages paid to the disabled workers, who all earn at least the minimum wage. Based in Princeton, Community Options provides employment for 2,500 people in nine states, and provides supportive housing for 1,300 nationwide, including 230 in New Jersey.