Our History

our offices

Our first North County office in Carmel, New York.

CAREERS was founded in 1987, by a group of trailblazing parents who were concerned about the lack of employment opportunities for their adult children with disabilities. With funding from Westchester County, we established CAREERS. Since then, we’ve continually grown to successfully meet the community’s expanding needs.

CAREERS places more disabled people in jobs than any other agency in Westchester and Putnam Counties. We are the number one supported employment program in our area. In our decades of providing services, we’ve made over 2,700 individual job placements and provided services to over 6,000 people. All our services are provided free to individuals, their families and employers.

Our Supported Work Program is the cornerstone for all CAREERS services. This program utilizes a one-on-one focus to generate creative job placements for people with disabilities and then provides ongoing training and support to enable them to keep those jobs. We offer several targeted programs tailored for specific populations, including our High School Transition Program established in 1997. Our Workforce Readiness, Placement and Training Program established in 2009.

In 2013, CAREERS’ launched our Ambition In Motion – AIM  program in Putnam County, a day habilitation program without walls for individuals who are not yet ready for a regular supported work program. In 2014, with a grant from the New York State Economic Development Council, we launched our Workforce Readiness, Placement and Training Program for low-income, long-term unemployed individuals and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (S.N.A.P.) recipients.

In 2016, we expanded our High School Transition program by launching our Education and Employment Initiative, which provides job skills training at an employers job site, with our experienced Employment Specialists offering follow-along support for students as they rotate through a series of different internships at an employers site.

To reflect the expanding role CAREERS plays in our community, we changed our name to CAREERS Support Solutions in 2017.  It highlights the unique, personalized support we offer to our clients and the personnel solutions we offer to their employers. It also incorporates our expanded employment training and placement services to low-income, long-term unemployed individuals who have not been able to find an appropriate job on their own.

In 2018, CAREERS expanded our services into lower Dutchess County, at the request of New York State ACCES-VR.  We also launched On Course for College for students 18 years old or older who have a documented disability, are referred by ACCES-VR and meet the admission requirements of a college for a degree or certificate program.

Students receive assistance with admission, health and financial aid forms; help with the registration and course selection process and personalized access to appropriate campus information including tutoring, student rights, accommodations and resources. Our staff provides social support and services tailored to the changing needs of each participant, including problem solving, coping skills and stress management.

Our Putnam County office is located at 102 Gleneida Avenue in Carmel

Our Putnam County office is located at 102 Gleneida Avenue in Carmel.

Our Valhalla office, located at 400 Columbus Avenue.