Didlake Incorporated – Community Inclusion Program

Specialties

Community Inclusion Program

Didlake strives to positively impact the lives of people with disabilities. That’s our mission: «Creating opportunities that enrich the lives of people with disabilities» and it permeates everything we do. Didlake provides contract and rehabilitative services. By succeeding at both, we offer new, life-​enriching opportunities for people with disabilities.

Didlake reaches out to people with disabilities in VA, MD and DC. We serve individuals with developmental disabilities as well as a wide variety of other disabilities such as: autism, visual impairments, hearing impairments, mental illness, physical disabilities, substance abuse/​addiction and traumatic brain injury.

History

Established in 1965.

1965 — Frustrated by laws prohibiting children with disabilities from attending public schools, a group of parents in Manassas, VA sells fireworks from a roadside stand to raise money for a private school. The Didlake School is established with an initial 16 students.

1972 — Didlake School, Inc. becomes incorporated with 32 students.

1975 — Didlake turns over its building and 34 students to local public schools who have formed Special Education programs. Didlake Work Activities Center starts «STEP UP,» a vocational program for its 16 former students who are now beyond school age.

1977 — The organization launches its first social enterprise – a mailing business that provides jobs for 16 adults with disabilities. The annual operating budget $ 65,000.

1981 — Didlake establishes an electronics assembly business that provides for 20 new workers.

1994 — Didlake, Inc. provides jobs for 250 people with disabilities and supports 45 consumers in competitive employment.