If you bring a big pile
of documents to St. Paul’s new Business Solutions to get
them scanned and put on disc, you’ll get
more than a solution to your shortage of storage space. You’ll also be
promoting community integration. Midway Training Services (MTS) recently announced
the opening of a new Business Solutions branch at 1953 University Ave. The
new MTS has a dual mission. First, it provides the community with a unique
service: document archiving. The University Avenue storefront prepares documents,
scans them and saves them electronically for customers wanting to save money
on cold storage costs. Digital imaging also makes document retrieval easier
and more efficient. Second, the new MTS branch provides employment and life
skills training to persons with disabilities.
MTS was started in 1965 by parents who were concerned about the lack
of services for their adult children who had what are today known as
developmental disabilities. Volunteers started serving a handful of
people from the St. Paul Midway area. Since then MTS has expanded to
serve 225 persons who have cognitive, physical or mental health disabilities.
MTS has five branches located throughout Ramsey County.
“We are proud of our history in the midway area and look forward
to providing high quality services to people with disabilities in our
new branches and being a valuable resource for area businesses,” said
Bob Brick, President/CEO.
The new Business Solutions
branch currently provides training and employment to 20 people.
The focus of the Business Solutions branch is to assist participants
in becoming employed. “Participants
get the best of both worlds,” says John Hoffman, Director of
Marketing and Sales. “We provide job skills training, practicing
things like, ‘How do I remember to make eye contact with the
customer.’ And we also can employ people in real work on site,
not supported employment. They can work anywhere from 2-4 hours a
day in paid work, putting their new skills into practice and doing
real, needed digital imaging and related work for customers.”
Not only can customers
make use of the digital imaging services, they can also look to
MTS for new, high quality employees to hire. “MTS
has a pool of motivated, trained and supported individuals who can
be an asset to any business seeking a reliable workforce,” stated
Bob Brick, President/CEO. “Our business partners include retailers,
manufacturing firms, non-profit organizations, post secondary schools,
restaurants, law firms and others interested in saving money and
accessing dependable workers.
At MTS, participants can take advantage of the rare combination of
skills training and work experience to build their resume and become
more employable. And the public can take advantage of the services
they provide along the way. ![]()
For more info, contact John
Hoffman, 651-288-8935, jhoffman@midwaytraining.com
