The National Rehabilitation Association recently selected Maumelle’s Center on the Lake as one of two central Arkansas recipients of the 2021 Award for Small Employers.

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Also honored was the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and the award was for what a press release called a “commitment to inclusivity and diversity in the creation of three part-time positions designed for Project SEARCH graduates.”

Project SEARCH is a project designed to connect those with disabilities with realistic employment options. Center on the Lake hired program graduates Unard Bush, Mathew Henley Greenwalt and Dutch Leger, seen above with Tawana Fox and Trish Hogan, earlier this year to part-time positions.

The release described their efforts and said they “have helped in keeping the center clean and welcoming to visitors” through “hard work and devotion.”

Project SEARCH works with Arkansas Rehabilitation Services to offer internships of nine months that are then divided into ten-week rotations as they get coaching and training, and then those coaches continue to work with them after they’ve left the program but are continuing their employment.