Community Integrated Services

We are thrilled to share further news about our forthcoming affiliation with Inglis, one of our region's leaders in providing a holistic range of disability services.

By bringing together our areas of expertise, CIS will be able to connect participants to an even broader range of supportive services while continuing to provide the same caring, individualized employment services that we've become known for.

Learn more about our exciting affiliation at the link. As CIS Executive Director Susan Schonfeld shared, "By joining forces with Inglis, we can expand our impact beyond employment alone—connecting individuals to a broader network of supports that promote independence, stability, and success both on and off the job.”

A Shared Mission for a Stronger Future: How Inglis and Community Integrated Services (CIS) are Strengthening Employment Pathways Together For nearly 150 years, Inglis has believed that people with disabilities deserve every opportunity to live independently, pursue their goals, and fully participate in their...

What a night last week with Laurel School District, who put together a beautiful event celebrating the achievements of District students and the community partners who've aided their success!

We are so proud to have been recognized by Laurel as a Community Partner--it's been an honor to work with Laurel students, see them grow, and help them achieve their goals. We can't wait to continue this work going forward.

For more on CIS and how you can join our team, head to cisworks.org ✨

Give it up for the Aramark team at the Philadelphia Zoo and Michael Handelman, our two CIS-nominated award winners at last Friday's Brighter Futures ceremony!

The annual awards ceremony is hosted by the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services and celebrates individuals and organizations making extraordinary efforts to assist people with Intellectual disAbilities in their community.

It was a fantastic, celebratory day: Michael Handelman, a classroom instructor in our Project SEARCH programs, received the Educational and Intellectual Award. The award citation recognized Michael's extraordinary teaching and mentorship, which has helped nearly 100 School District of Philadelphia students transition from school to employment.

The Employment & Career Development Award went to the Aramark team at the Philadelphia Zoo for their outstanding partnership in helping over 30 CIS participants find and thrive in meaningful employment at the zoo. Aramark's Lauren Abruzzese, Michael Toussaint, Haley Evans, and Whitney Standish were on hand to accept the award.

The program included speeches by Valerie Arkoosh, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services; former PA State Representative Stephen Kinsey; and Kathryn Ott Lovell, President and CEO of PHILADELPHIA250.

And the surprise of the day came when Amira Heep was presented with a Special Recognition Award. Amira works ballgames and events at all of Philly's stadiums and receives services from CIS, but Friday was her turn in the spotlight as she was invited to open and close the day's festivities: the morning began with Amira's beautiful rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner and the afternoon closed with Amira performing a song of her own composition. It was *awesome*, to say the least, and we'll share more in the coming days.

Our great thanks to the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services for putting on such an incredible event, and to ceremony host Loraine Ballard Morrill for always leading the way and doing justice to the awardees, nominees, and everyone in the city of Philadelphia working to create more inclusive and accessible communities.

Exciting news for the future of inclusive employment! We’re proud to announce a new affiliation between CIS and Inglis—bringing together two organizations committed to empowering people with disabilities.

Together, we’re expanding access to employment opportunities and supportive services that help individuals thrive at work and in their communities.

And as always, our participants can count on uninterrupted services and continued support from their trusted CIS staff.

Read more about what this means: https://bit.ly/4tHkVsD

We can't wait to celebrate our two CIS-nominated Award Winners at TODAY'S Brighter Futures Awards, hosted by Philadelphia's Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services 🙌

Enormous congratulations to the Aramark team at the Philadelphia Zoo, and to Michael Handelman. Each of these award winners has helped expand opportunity and access for people with disabilities in enormously impactful ways.

Stay tuned for more from today's celebrations, and learn more about our work at cisworks.org!

The 2026 Brighter Futures Awards from Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services are coming up *this Friday*, and we are thrilled to be celebrating TWO CIS-nominated award winners!

The Aramark team at the Philadelphia Zoo will receive the 2026 Employment & Career Development Award for their amazing partnership and advocacy in helping over 30 CIS participants find and thrive in employment at the Zoo.

And the incredible Michael Handelman will receive the 2026 Educational & Intellectual Award. Through his teaching and mentorship as a Project Career Launch Instructor (a partnership of CIS, the School District of Philadelphia, the AJ Drexel Autism Institute and Community College of Philadelphia), Michael has made a transformative impact in the lives of nearly 100 students with disabilities and helped them make a successful transition from school to employment.

We can't wait to celebrate our outstanding award winners, and we hope to see you there!

What beautiful portraits from our recent Mission Possible Event!

This impactful yearly gathering connects CIS-supported students from CR Countywide Programs with local employers for a series of interactive sessions. Throughout the day, students get to explore different career possibilities and network with local employers.

As this group of pictures speak to, it was a joyful, engaging event that helped build bonds between students and connections with local employers.

Our enormous thanks to all of the following people, organizations, and businesses who came together to make the event such a success:

Our host, Wyoming United Methodist Church;

Keynote speaker, Kathi Stephan - Education Associate, Secondary and Transition from DOE;

Our student speaker, Nathan Cookson, current Caesar Rodney Roads to Success student at DelDOT Project Search;

Our Plant Science CTE Pathway business: Insight Ag Scouting;

Our Architectural/Engineering CTE Pathway business: StudioJAED Architects Engineers & Facilities Solutions;

Our Entrepreneurship CTE Pathway business: Rigby’s Pool Services LLC;

Our Teacher Academy K-12 CTE Pathway organization: Bayhealth Child Care & Early Learning Center;

Our Strength, Endurance, Athletics CTE Pathway business: EPOC CrossFit.

Making the day even more special were t-shirt donations from Dover Federal Credit Union;

T-shirt donations and design from SoArt Designz and Prints;

Food donations from Wawa, Herr's, and Veronica's Brick Oven Pizzeria.

And we'd also like to extend a huge thank you to thank Representative Lyndon Yearick, Jeff Spratley from the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce, Ramona Savage and Alison McGonigal from Delaware Division of Developmental Disabilities Services - DDDS, the staff of CR Countywide Programs, and Dr. George Tilson.

What a truly special day! And for more on how CIS works for people with disabilities, head to CISworks.org!

The 2026 Brighter Futures Awards from Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services are coming up *this Friday*, and we are thrilled to be celebrating TWO CIS-nominated award winners!

The Aramark team at the Philadelphia Zoo will receive the 2026 Employment & Career Development Award for their amazing partnership and advocacy in helping over 30 CIS participants find and thrive in employment at the Zoo.

And the incredible Michael Handelman will receive the 2026 Educational & Intellectual Award. Through his teaching and mentorship as a Project Career Launch Instructor (a partnership of CIS, the School District of Philadelphia, the AJ Drexel Autism Institute and Community College of Philadelphia), Michael has made a transformative impact in the lives of nearly 100 students with disabilities and helped them make a successful transition from school to employment.

We can't wait to celebrate our outstanding award winners, and we hope to see you there!

Give it up for this amazing group of Project SEARCH participants who ran their way to glory on Saturday during the Eagles Autism Challenge 5K, put on by the Eagles Autism Foundation!

The PS Racers trained since October, and they knocked it out of the park. They joined nearly 7000 participants for Saturday’s bike and run/walk to support Autism research, and the support of the CIS staff and community helped equip them with gear and their personalized team t-shirts.

This effort was spearheaded by our own Paul Barth, Manager of Student Programs at CIS. Paul’s been a champion of Project SEARCH programs and participants for over a decade, helping students excel both in and out of the classroom. Saturday was another beautiful example of that, and we are so proud of Paul and each of the PS Racers: seven months ago they set a goal, and, through their commitment and hard work, on Saturday they achieved it.

Enormous congratulations to the PS Racers and everyone who supported them—you played an important part in raising over $16 million for Autism research in the Philadelphia area.

For more on Project SEARCH and our School-to-Work Transition Programs, head to cisworks.org/school-to-work-transition/ !

We’re throwing it back to two weeks ago at POLYTECH High School, where our staff was on hand for their end-of-year college and career fair!

Alyssa, Alan, and Michael had a great time chatting about CIS’s services and employment opportunities with POLYTECH students getting ready to exit school, and it was wonderful to see so many people come out to the event.

Our great thanks to the school for putting on such a great event—it was wonderful to share our work with students as they weigh different possibilities for life after high school!

For more on our services and job opportunities, head to CISworks.org 💫

What a day for some of our amazing Project SEARCH students, pictured here on a recent visit to the Philadelphia Zoo for a day of networking and career exploration.

Our award-winning SEARCH programs provide real-world work experience and career preparation to Philadelphians with disabilities who are preparing to graduate from high school. On the visit to the zoo, the group of six students, led by our own Rachel Gregory, got to take a tour of the grounds, chat with Whitney Standish, GM of the zoo’s food and beverage operations (run by an incredible Aramark team), and have lunch alongside a number of zoo employees.

The coolest part? Many of the zoo employees that students got to talk to are themselves former project SEARCH participants, and once went through the same classrooms and curriculum that the PS students are undergoing now! It was an awesome opportunity for Project SEARCH participants to hear about different jobs at the zoo and what the transition was like from the classroom to employment for folks like Micah, Mason, Gennesy, Adale, Hezekiah, and Charles. To a person each shared how pivotal Project SEARCH was in preparing them for employment, and credited the program with positioning them to have success in their current jobs at the zoo.

We are so grateful to the staff at CIS, Project SEARCH, AJ Drexel Autism Institute, School District of Philadelphia, Aramark, and the Philadelphia Zoo for making it a day to remember for these talented Project SEARCH participants.

For more on how CIS works for people with disabilities, head to cisworks.org!