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
