The ANCOR Foundation is also delighted to announce that Mickey Mart is the recipient of the Foundation’s 2021 Community Builder Award.
Based in Milan, Ohio, and operating locations across Ohio, Mickey Mart is a regional chain of convenience stores and gas stations that was selected to receive the Community Builder Award in recognition of its inclusive hiring program.
For more than six years, Mickey Mart has partnered with community-based providers of disability services by creating employment opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), as well as by investing in natural and customized supports and staff education.
The ANCOR Foundation’s Community Builder Award was created in 2004 to recognize the exemplary initiatives of people, communities, community-based organizations, and initiatives outside the ANCOR community that are contributing to the inclusion of people supported by ANCOR members.
The Community Builder Award program had been on hiatus since 2015 and was reinstated in 2021 to showcase outstanding achievements in the promotion of opportunities for people with I/DD by exemplifying best practices, fostering inclusion in the community, and partnering across sectors.Â
Mickey Mart’s nomination letter indicated that these opportunities have been especially essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas many people with I/DD working in the community were among the first to lose their jobs when lockdowns forced businesses to close, Mickey Mart supported its employees to maintain their positions and adapted those positions accordingly to ensure their employees could remain safe.
Furthermore, the company worked to ensure that those employees with I/DD who couldn’t work due to the pandemic had jobs when they were ready to return to work.