Melwood Horticultural Training Center, Inc
Melwood empowers over 2,600 indviduals with disablities annually to transform their lives through unique opportunities to live, work, and thrive in the community through programs focused on professional development training, job placement, vocational support, day services, and much more.
Melwood is dedicated to creating a world where people with disabilities are fully included.
Your contribution will be carefully stewarded to ensure that your support, regardless of the amount, is leveraged to provide maximum benefits to individuals with disabilities, helping them to become wage-earners and a productive part of our community.
Second, giving to Melwood makes you part of the Melwood community of individuals, corporations, and charitable institutions making a real difference for people with disabilities.
In 1963 a small group of parents and community supporters decided to teach plant care to young adults who were considered by most to be untrainable and unemployable. Their goal was almost unheard of: jobs for people with disabilities. It was a bold idea for its time.
Over the following decades, Melwood would pioneer many new milestones in the field that would be known as social-entrepreneurial ventures: businesses with the "double bottom line" of providing revenue as well as jobs and independence for people with disabilities.
The first successes came in horticulture. Our trainees cultivated plants through our founding program in horticulture rehabilitative therapy and sold them at work sites around the Washington D.C. area. That work led to grounds keeping and landscaping contracts, where Melwood crews consistently delivered good, dependable work.
Today, Melwood celebrates 60 years of providing jobs and services to people with disabilities. We continue to utilize the innovative and effective social-entrepreneurial model we were founded on to offer more people with disabilities the careful training they need to become proud and valuable members of the workforce in their communities.
Melwood advocates for and empowers 2,200 individuals with disabilities per year to transform their lives through unique opportunities to live, work, and thrive in the community through programs focused on professional development training, job placement assistance, vocational support, day habilitation services, summer camps, and more.
Community support makes it possible for Melwood to offer customized opportunities for people with disabilities.
We provide job training, employment, supportive services and recreation for more than 2,500 people with disabilities each year.
Your donation helps us provide even more people with services that can transform their lives.
We continue to utilize the innovative and effective social-entrepreneurial model we were founded on to offer more people with disabilities the careful training they need to become proud and valuable members of the workforce in their communities.
As a result of our integrated program offerings, Melwood is one of the largest employers of people with disabilities in the Eastern Region of the United States, providing more than 750 dedicated workers with disabilities a good job and direct support services.
Each year, we serve more than 2,000 people in the DC metropolitan area, offering job training, employment, life skill improvement, community support, and recreation opportunities. We are giving people with disabilities the confidence and skills needed to live their best lives.
Melwood’s leadership team is comprised of subject matter experts charged with the strategic development of methods that will strengthen Melwood’s mission and use our resources wisely. Melwood is purposeful and efficient with the donations entrusted to us.
Please visit GuideStar and Charity Navigator to review Melwood’s ratings from each of those organizations.