CDS Monarch plays role in lowering unemployment for people with disabilities

Rochester, N.Y. – When the Bureau of Labor released its job statistics Friday, Aug. 7, it noted that from July 2014 to July 2015 the unemployment rate of people with disabilities ages 16 and over dropped from 12.1 percent to 10.4 percent. That’s an additional 315 people with disabilities who have entered the workforce. This is something that, through its vocational services, CDS Monarch played a role in achieving.

“We’re doing everything we can to help people with disabilities enter the workforce and live fulfilled lives,” CDS Monarch President/CEO Sankar Sewnauth said. “Because of the exemplary work we provide with our vocational services, we have 35 people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities working in the community. They work at businesses such as the U of R, Home Depot and ABVI Goodwill.”

Unistel, a subsidiary of CDS Monarch, is a food and product manufacturing, assembly, sourcing, consolidation, warehousing and logistics facility. In addition to business-to- business services, Unistel provides job opportunities and training for over 200 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as Veterans with PTSD, a traumatic brain injury and/or military sexual trauma.