Friends of Californians with
Disabilities, Inc.,
(Friends, Inc.) is an all-volunteer
organization with no paid
employees.
We are a non-profit 501(c)(3)
organization, and through our
fund-raising efforts and financial
donations, we
provide financial support to
organizations and in some instances to
individuals that are in line with our
mission and goals. Friends, Inc. also
provides services as a fiduciary agent
for related organizations that
currently do not have one of their
own.
ABOUT
US
Friends, Inc.
played and continues to foster, a major
leadership role in the partnership that
created such innovative, and nationally
acclaimed projects as the California
Youth Leadership Forum for Students
with Disabilities (YLF), the Media
Access Office, Media Access
Awards and the Windmills Disability
Awareness Diversity Training
Program.
MISSION
Our mission is
to continue our leadership in
developing local, statewide and
national partnerships that increase
employment and independent living
opportunities for people with
disabilities.
HISTORY
More than twenty
years ago, the volunteer members of the
former California Governor's Committee
on Employment of People with
Disabilities created Friends, Inc., a
private non-profit 501(c)(3)
corporation to enable the volunteer
members from private corporations to
financially support the committee's
unique special projects. Although no
longer formally affiliated with the
committee, now reorganized as the
California Committee on Employment of
People with Disabilities, Friends,
Inc., continues to work in partnership
with the committee and numerous other
private and government entities to
increase employment, education and
independent living for people with
disabilities.
SHARING CALIFORNIA'S
SUCCESS
Many of the
innovative programs developed in
partnership with Friends, Inc., have
now been shared and/or duplicated with
our partners and other organizations
throughout the nation and in many other
countries, including Canada, France and
Japan. Despite our great strides, the
extraordinarily high unemployment and
poverty rates for people with
disabilities make our continuing
challenge clear.
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