Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Angela Calzone's Vision:Integrating disabilities into the workforce
Wed, 23 Apr 2025
Send us a textAngela Calzone shares how Inroads to Opportunities supports individuals with disabilities through comprehensive programs designed to facilitate meaningful employment. The organization's business-oriented approach focuses on integration, skills development, and changing employer perceptions about hiring people with both visible and invisible disabilities.• Inroads to Opportunities serves approximately 400 individuals annually with various disabilities• School-to-work transition programs allow students to remain until age 21, learning practical skills• Contract packaging operation provides real-world work experience in assembly and shipping• Certificate programs include Serv Safe food handling and OSHA forklift training• On-site job coaches support both employees and employers during the transition• New Jersey employers can receive tax credits for hiring individuals with disabilities• Vocational assessments help identify skills, interests, and suitable career paths• Success rates for program graduates are approximately 95%• Community integration is central to the organization's philosophy and approachhttps://tonymantor.comhttps://Facebook.com/tonymantorhttps://instagram.com/tonymantorhttps://twitter.com/tonymantorhttps://youtube.com/tonymantormusicintro/outro music bed written by T. WildWhy Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
Chapter 1: Who is Angela Calzone and what does Inroads to Opportunities do?
We are Inroads to Opportunities, and we are a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Been around about 66 years, and we support individuals with disabilities, whether they're visible disabilities or invisible disabilities. So what does that mean? That means physical, mental health, behavioral health, intellectual, developmental disabilities, and...
Chapter 2: What inspired Angela Calzone to lead this nonprofit organization?
We take folks as young as 16 in our various programs, and they can stay with us through retirement and beyond. What prompted you to get into this line of work? So I had a management consulting practice for many years, served clients in both New Jersey and New York City, and this agency was one of my clients. We used to do strategic planning.
We had to do a lot of training for their staff, help them with the marketing. And we had other nonprofits throughout New Jersey and New York that we worked with. But something about this place really appealed to me. The staff, you can tell, genuinely cared for and supported the individuals that they served. The longevity of people working here was really impressive.
You had young people working here. from their graduation from college right through to getting ready to retire. So it was really impressive how much blood, sweat, and tears the staff really put into caring for and supporting the individuals that they serve. I also was intrigued by how happy the people who participated in these programs were when I visited.
They were friendly, they were engaging, they were engaging with each other. They had such an extraordinary camaraderie. It was just an overall very impressive place. And I just, you know how when you walk in the door someplace, you're like, yeah, you know what, I'm not leaving. It's just something, there's going to be this connection here.
And for a while, I served on the board for about a hot minute. And then my daughter took ill, so I had to... I couldn't really make a commitment, a volunteer commitment like that. But always stayed in touch, always served them as a client.
And then when I got word that the current president and CEO was going to retire, that's when we started the conversations about how I might fit in to the future of this place. So it has been an incredible, great adventure. And I love the mission, the vision, the people. Couldn't ask for a better place to be.
That's nice. Now, how long have you been there?
I'm here five years. I joined two months before the pandemic.
What are some of the changes that you've seen from when you started to what it is today?
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Chapter 3: How has Angela's business background influenced the growth of Inroads to Opportunities?
Having brought a lot of that business acumen and sort of corporateness to the agency, I've seen a big shift in how we market, how we develop business,
and sponsors and just really it's a very different way that we're engaging with the community now we are out in the community and that's the whole purpose of this place is to fully integrate our folks because they are your brothers and sisters and your sons and daughters and your neighbors and uh your friends they're not isolated people with disabilities are part of the community.
And so we are out there in full force, engaging with local politicians, we volunteer for things, we're at the movies, we go on trips, we're at the supermarket, we're learning life skills and vocational skills, and we're getting jobs in the community. We're just citizens of the world, just like everybody else.
Chapter 4: How does Inroads to Opportunities integrate individuals with disabilities into the community?
So how have you grown? How many people work within your organization?
We serve approximately 400 individuals each year with a variety of services. We've got school-to-work transition programs. We've got pre-vocational programs. We've got job development and job coaching where we're on the job with our folks, supporting them and making sure that they understand the work that they're supposed to do for their employer.
We've got full complement of mental health services. We even have a contract packaging operation here that we run. Also a full service kitchen. We have training programs where you can earn a certificate. So we've got quite a robust series of programs and services here. That said, with us serving 400 individuals each year, we're a suburb of New York City in Union County, New Jersey.
Chapter 5: What types of programs and services does Inroads to Opportunities offer?
I see us in the next five to seven years doubling that number because there's such a great need in our area, in our community. And we've got amazing people and amazing services. So there really isn't any reason why we couldn't be doubling that number in the next five years.
What's the criteria to get into your service? What's the process they have to go through? And how do you handle it so that you know that it's a good fit for both them and your company?
That really depends on how they're referred and their funding source. 16 to 21-year-old crowd, they are coming right from their high school. We are considered an out-of-district placement for individuals who have intellectual or developmental disabilities.
If a school system or school district doesn't have a robust enough special ed program or services that can support an individual who's got some more complicated challenges or disabilities, then they can outsource them or place them out of district with us. We don't provide the academic education.
We provide the life skills development, getting them ready potentially for employment, exposing them to different jobs and careers. out in the communities. We're really giving them that practical, real world, how to negotiate the the day-to-day, and then what it looks like to start looking for a job and to be employment ready.
I think personally, this should be a curriculum in every school district in every part of the country. And not just for individuals with disabilities, but for all kids. Because how difficult is it when our kids are getting ready to graduate, they don't know the first thing coming out of high school about how to put a resume together or what to wear on an interview.
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Chapter 6: What is the process and criteria for joining Inroads to Opportunities' programs?
What are the right things to say? How do you respond when the interviewer is asking you questions? What job do you really think you want? What do you like and not like? What have you been exposed to? Coming out of high school, you have no clue most of the time. I think this is an advantage for not only individuals with disabilities, but all kids. But we focus on the IDD population.
And we've had great success with these kids.
So is your situation like a vocational school where someone will come in and learn their craft? How long do they have to learn it? What's that process look like?
They can stay with us. In New Jersey, you can remain in high school if you are diagnosed with intellectual or developmental disabilities. You can stay in high school until you're 21 years old so that you can have ample time to prepare for your transition into the workforce or if you're going to transition into a college or other scenarios.
So they can stay with us from ages 16 to 21 in that particular program. At 21, their school district graduates them and then they can move to a couple of different programs that we have here. If they are ready for employment, we put them in our employment department And we work with them on, again, getting ready to interview. Let's get a resume and a cover letter together.
You've had some exposure to different types of jobs and careers. What do you think you might want to do? Let's get you your first job. Now, if they're graduating and they're not quite ready for employment,
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Chapter 7: How does the school-to-work transition program work for young adults with disabilities?
we have another program called Transition Plus, where it's really an extension of the School to Work Transition Program, where they can spend two additional years really learning life skills, getting some pre-vocational skills, and again, more of the same being exposed to different jobs, practicing different jobs.
having speakers come in and work with them and talk with them about different career types and what kind of qualifications that you need to be able to take a job in these areas. So it's just an extension of almost like a community college. You get those extra two years of exposure. And then hopefully at that point, they're ready to move into employment.
And if they're not, we have other social programs that they can be a part of, I should say.
So do you have people or organizations that you work with So when the client goes through your classes, when they're finished, they have maybe a job to go to?
Absolutely, we do. We work with local employers throughout the county. Again, it's got to be a right fit. They've got to have a need for an employee. And then we've got a roster of folks that may qualify for that job. We bring them together. It's almost in a way like we function as an employment agency, but we're not getting any kind of payment from the employer.
We're funded by the state of New Jersey. So, yeah, we'll work to do an employer-employee match, and we navigate them through the whole process. There's some tax credits available for New Jersey employers to take advantage of if they hire an individual with a disability. It's a win for everybody, really. They're getting a great job. qualified, trained, loyal employee.
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Chapter 8: What support is provided to clients to help them find and maintain employment?
They have the opportunity to benefit from a tax credit and our folks are getting a job that they will do well at, have support from us on a continuum and have a job that they love and they can make money and start to build their lives like any of us would want to do.
With any company that does things like you do, there's always bumps in the road, challenges to overcome. What were some of the challenges that you faced initially getting this started? And further, what are some of the challenges that you face day to day now that you've been up and running for a while?
We've been doing this for, like I said, about 66 years in various forms. Of course, the agency is at its largest right now. So I think there's a lot of different challenges. Perception being the greatest one from an employer's perspective and having been an employer.
I think as a business owner or a business manager, you're always concerned, okay, if I take a person on who has a disability, what's that going to cost me? How much do I have to make in terms of accommodation? Is it going to disrupt the workflow of my other employees? Are they going to have to compensate or overcompensate for this individual?
What are my customers going to do if this individual maybe can't interact or communicate in a typical way? There's a lot of concern and worry on the part of employers. And also in New Jersey, our minimum wage is like $15.49. These days we're finding employers are looking for a person who could not only do one or two tasks, but they want them to do the whole roster of responsibilities.
And sometimes our folks may struggle with that. Those are a big part of the challenges, that perception. But we work very closely with our folks. where they're on the job with them oftentimes, where they're supporting them. So we do a lot of on-the-job training that the employer doesn't have to do. We're always there when there's a need.
You mentioned you have a contract for packaging.
How does that work? So like any other company, we do hand assembly and shrink wrapping. We have shipping and receiving. So we can do a number of things. And we've had some really great customers and we continue to enjoy that benefit. And so we have a marketing director and a marketing program goes out and gets new business. And we also have recurring business for many years.
And our folks work in this packaging and assembly company that we have. And they'll do anything from a slight assembly, typically, not something, not anything too heavy. For example, we've got a customer who is an importer of Italian foods. And one of the things that we do here is we remove the label for tomato sauce cans. It's large tomato sauce cans that you see at Costco and BJ's.
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