Federal Reserve NDEAM Program

Melwood President and CEO, Cari DeSantis was honored as a key speaker during the Federal Reserve Board’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month program on Oct.12. In an effort to increase our efforts to advocate for workers with differing abilities, Ms. DeSantis explained how Melwood strives to remove obstacles to employment and enable individuals with differing abilities to maximize their independence and inclusion in the community through work.

Melwood provides over 900 people with differing abilities with consistent employment, benefits and direct support both at Melwood facilities and on the 43 federal contract sites throughout the Greater Washington DC region and State of Maryland through the U.S. AbilityOne program. “As Melwood grows, our focus is on preparing young people with differing abilities for a variety of new and interesting jobs according to their personal skills, talents and preferences so they can take their place in the 21^st century American workforce” stated Ms. DeSantis.

Event attendees were inspired as they learned about the journey Melwood has taken over the last 50 years toward a fully inclusive and integrated world. As Ms. DeSantis shared Melwood’s vast advancements, it is understood that our hard work has only just begun. Melwood’s goal is to “train, place and, if necessary, support even more individuals in the integrated community workforce and to continue to build our business lines so that we can offer even more good paying jobs with benefits, and be an example for others in the community.”