Life’s Work of Western PA opens new Mon Valley building, offering expanded services
A nonprofit agency helping place those with disabilities find gainful employment has wholly rebuilt its former facility in the Mon Valley to accommodate its growing program of services better.
Ed Frye, who has been in this field for forty years and came to Life’s Work after retiring from the Pittsburgh office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services, is the senior advisor of corporate and community engagement with the organization. He said this renovation was a long time coming.
“We opened the Mon Valley facility in 1979, ran it for 28 years and knew we needed another space, a bigger one. We had an opportunity to buy the old Trib building and did a complete renovation, designed it to meet our needs and leave flexibility for future for expanded programs. It’s a much nicer, cleaner facility for our clients to come to. The layout is much more conducive for differently abled folks, too.”
Although the organization’s longevity is unquestionable, Frye believes having a newer, neater, larger and more accessible building will make all the difference when it comes to the nonprofit’s ability to provide for different segments of the disabled population in the area.
“We work with folks having all sorts of disabilities. A disability is any physical or mental condition that impairs a person’s ability to work. It includes addiction too, which we’ve just begun programming for. If someone has a disability that includes something physical, intellectual, neuro-related (autism spectrum, etc.), or any type of impairment that affects a person’s ability to work, they are all eligible for our program. Addiction is considered a disability, and we’ve recently expanded our programming to cater to folks needing these types of services as well.”
Life’s Work PA has added an opioid program with six recovery specialists and employs 30 people in the Mon Valley. The agency as a whole has a staff of around 100 people. According to Frye, this new building will be much better able to accommodate the new types of programs they’ve included and plan to include, adding, “the layout will meet our needs. We had this opportunity to revamp the old Trib building and took it!”
Frye said the new types of programming aren’t limited to the opioid recovery contingent, who are referred to the organization by rehabilitation centers in the area. “We are also working on a rural schools program. These kids have the unique problem of lack of transport to necessary resources, and also, they haven’t had the opportunity to be around different kinds of jobs.”
When it comes to being disabled in a rural area, Frye says, the challenges are different. “There just aren’t as many resources as there are in the city. We are looking to work with six rural school districts to resolve their problems. There is less support available here, and we have to work around these issues by going to the clients in these areas as opposed to expecting them to make the trek to come out our way and go through the considerable effort that would entail.”
Though the facility’s primary location is on the South Side of Pittsburgh, a small office in Mt. Pleasant also services the Greensburg area. For more information about Life’s Work and its services, visit lifesworkwpa.org.