Orchard Village Academy helps young adults with disabilities transition from high school to competitive jobs, college enrollment, and more independent lives. Recent Orchard Academy graduate Michelle first came to the Academy ...

Reed recently came to Orchard Village during the pandemic. Despite the challenges of her timing, she has grown a lot and been such a positive light to her friends and program staff. Reed benefits from multiple Orchard Village services, but ...

Matthew's been a student at Orchard Academy for three years after being referred by his high school. Since his first day, he has interned at various job sites, including Marshall's, Cici's Pizza, the Niles Food Pantry, and Walgreen's, ...

Shawn is one of our residents whom we assisted in finding and maintaining the "favorite job that he's had so far" at a local pizza restaurant, where he has worked for two years. Shawn enjoys being a cashier and interacting with customers. He ...

Wendy started at InnOVations during the pandemic because she was unhappy with her previous day program's offerings. At InnOVations, Wendy immediately took to our Abilities in Motion activities like Movement Club, Adaptive Yoga, and ...

Denise P., a newer client at Orchard Village, has been working at Jewel-Osco for over four months now with the help of our vocational team. She is employed as a service clerk at Jewel, helping to put carts away and bag groceries for customers. ...

Avis, 21, started attending InnOVations, Orchard Village's non-traditional and employment preparation focused day program for adults with developmental disabilities, in April of 2018. His goal? A job in the community! Nancy ...

Harrison works at Panino’s Pizzeria in Evanston and is currently living in his own apartment in Skokie, but he didn’t always. Harrison started out in 24-hour supervised living at Orchard Village with the goal of his own apartment and ...

Stanley is celebrating his 18th year of working at Jewel! Stanley started working for Jewel in 2000 in Wood Dale, Illinois. One year later, he transferred to the Jewel at Village Crossing in Skokie and has worked there ever since. ...

Jacob is a true employment success story. Jacob joined the Orchard Village family when he moved into the Newcastle group home. At the time, he was not interested in community-based employment. Instead, he started attending a sheltered ...