Corporate Champion 2010

2010 Alliance Data Corporate Champion Awardee – Walgreens

For the past 46 years, LaunchAbility has been on a mission to empower children and adults with developmental disabilities to lead fulfilling lives in their communities. Businesses play a crucial role in this mission.

Alliance Data was one of the first corporations to come on board in support of our agency and its annual fundraiser, A Special Evening. The Alliance Data Corporate Champion Award was created in honor of their years of generous financial support as well as their long-time commitment to LaunchAbility through volunteer hours and hiring of our Supported Employment clients.

It is in the spirit of their stewardship that LaunchAbility has selected Walgreens as recipient of the 2010 Alliance Data Corporate Champion Award. “Under the leadership of Randy Lewis, Walgreens is changing the world with a corporate-wide initiative to hire people with disabilities at their distribution centers,” said Cathy Packard, Chief Executive Officer of LaunchAbility.   “Walgreens’ two most recent distribution centers employ an inclusive and integrated workforce composed 40% of people with disabilities who are held to the same work standards and earn the same pay as “typically-abled” fellow workers. Lewis is already 75% of the way toward his goal of hiring 1,000 people with disabilities by 2010.”

“Walgreens’ success with this initiative has proven to other large retail chains the benefits of having people with disabilities as a significant percentage of their workforce, making more jobs available while improving the bottom line and corporate culture,” added Packard. “We have selected Walgreens as recipient of the 2010 Alliance Data Corporate Champion Award to recognize their outstanding achievements - opening the door to allow thousands in this population to gain independence and reach their full potential through employment.”

Their staff, especially Scott Tisdall and Scott Lemon, donate their time to speak and advocate in the community about the benefits of hiring people with disabilities. Scott Lemon is also taking a leadership role in getting local mayors involved in this initiative.

LaunchAbility became a part of Walgreens’ employment initiative in 2008, when the Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) asked Special Care & Career Services, now LaunchAbility, to design a training program that would help individuals with disabilities develop the stamina to be able to manage the physically demanding jobs at the distribution centers.  The result was the Work Readiness Program (WRP) – a groundbreaking employment training that combines occupational therapy with traditional job skills coaching.

True to its commitment to expand employment opportunities for people with developmental disabilities, Walgreens is launching another new initiative to train and place this population in their retail stores. There are 15 distribution centers, but over 7,000 retail sites. This move represents an unprecedented increase in employment opportunities.  In part because of the success of the WRP collaboration with DARS and LaunchAbility, this new retail initiative is starting in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with LaunchAbility’s team leading the job skills training.

Walgreens and its team members take great pride in the successes and accomplishments of its pioneering initiative to hire people with disabilities. Even with the struggling economy when cutbacks are often mandated, Walgreens stays true to its trail-blazing goal of creating a world where hiring people with disabilities is the norm. They are a big company with big heart and strong business practices. If you ask why they did this, Randy Lewis would say, “It’s not charity, its good business sense.”

About Walgreens

Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) is the nation’s largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2009 sales of $63 billion. The company operates 7,162 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Walgreens provides the most convenient access to consumer goods and services and cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services in America through its retail drugstores, Walgreens Health Services division and Walgreens Health and Wellness division. Walgreens Health Services assists pharmacy patients and prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives Inc. (a pharmacy benefit manager), Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc., Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC and Walgreens Long-Term Care Pharmacy LLC. Walgreens Health and Wellness Division includes Take Care Health Systems, the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.