Starting this Spring, Chinook Enterprises’ Community Employment Services (CES) team began making plans to request to co-locate in the modular building Mount Vernon School District (MVSD) owns adjacent to Chinook, which is currently utilized by the Northwest Career and Technical Academy (NCTA) for their Open Doors program.
NCTA and MVSD graciously offered Chinook to adapt one of the classrooms to help us expand the number of employment specialists we employ and serve more individuals with barriers to employment (including providing cooking classes in that fantastic kitchen). We finally were able to move in this Fall, utilizing 3 out of 4 desk spaces, allowing us to serve 18 Bridges students currently (and raising our capacity to accept 26 students next year) in partnership with Skagit County Developmental Disabilities.
We are so grateful for these partnerships and for finding synchronicity in service for current students and those exiting students who may need additional employment supports post-graduation.
Though we haven’t yet started planning our additional service offerings in the space (which could include independent living and community inclusion supports) we are so excited to have room to breathe and grow!
