November 17, 2011

Dear Sir or Madam,

DisabledCommunity.Org (DCO) -- a federally recognized 501 c 3 has a mission to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. To meet this challenge, DCO opened an online bookstore in 2008 to educate individuals with disabilities in the vocational skills of today’s modern day work life. We are asking for your help to continue to grow this program.

Many people are unaware that at age 25 -- many young adults with disabilities “automatically graduate” from high school and have little hope of obtaining further education or employment. All of DCO bookseller trainees have never been employed, but receive limited supplemental Social Security income. Prior to training as a Disabled Community Bookseller many participants never conducted business at a post offices or bank.

DCO developed as an online bookseller training program so that people with disabilities could learn skills that are needed to be successful in the workplace. An online bookstore was chosen as our model because it provides a way to teach business skills outside of the public eye. This was beneficial due the fact that many of our participants have learning and developmental disabilities and tend to be shy when learning something new.

Participants at DCO have been learning computer competence, processing donated used books, and how to act professionally in both a work environment and in the community. Over 16 booksellers have been trained and DCO has over 3,000 books listed at our online bookstore. Our next goal is to obtain a more public storefront to help our booksellers gain hands-on customer expertise. In the current economic environment, retail space has become more affordable and we have located two sites under $800 per month which will give us storefront retail exposure.

With your help, we will continue training DCO bookseller’s meaningful skills and providing opportunities for people to be a to be part of a community making a difference. If you have questions about our project or ideas or contacts to share please contact Lori at (415) 508-6130 or via email at: admin@disabledcommunity.org.

Sincerely,

Lori Guidos                             Miles Fong
DCO Executive Director       DCO Development Department Trainee