{"id":30926,"date":"2016-08-03T08:27:12","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T12:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=30926"},"modified":"2016-08-03T08:27:57","modified_gmt":"2016-08-03T12:27:57","slug":"county-cup-wins-national-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=30926","title":{"rendered":"County Cup wins national recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Representatives<\/a>

Representatives from the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU) joined Chester County Commissioners\u2019 Chair Terence Farrell in accepting the National Association of Counties (NACo) Achievement Award for Employment and Training at NACo\u2019s annual conference in Long Beach, California. Pictured from left to right are: Dr. Jacalyn Auris and Mr. R. Scot Semple from the CCIU, County Commissioner Terence Farrell, and Laurie Masino and Dr. Anita Riccio, also from the CCIU.<\/p><\/div>\n

WEST CHESTER \u2014 The County Cup, a pilot project established by the Chester County Department of Mental Health\/Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (MH\/IDD) and the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU), has been recognized nationally as an innovative program that modernizes and improves county government.<\/p>\n

The National Association of Counties (NACo) awarded the project its highest accolade in the Employment and Training category at this year\u2019s Outstanding Achievements program, part of the NACo conference in Long Beach, California.<\/p>\n

The County Cup provides training, job skills and employment opportunities in food service and catering for Chester County residents \u2013 students from age 14 through to adults \u2013 with special needs. Originally opened at the Chester County Government Services Center in 2012, the County Cup \u201cGrab and Go\u201d kiosk concept expanded to the Chester County Justice Center in 2014, followed by a third location at the CCIU Learning Center in March 2015, and at the Delaware County Community College Pennock\u2019s Bridge Campus in February of this year. A fifth location will open this September.<\/p>\n

An additional service, County Cup \u201cOn the Go\u201d offers breakfast and lunch catering options for gatherings of 10 to 150.<\/p>\n

The County Cup program has employed 13 student workers and provides practical volunteer opportunities for up to 50 students each week. To date, three former student workers have been hired as permanent food service staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many of Chester County\u2019s endeavors, the County Cup began as a vision \u2013 in this instance, a vision to provide training and employment opportunities for our residents with disabilities,\u201d said Chester County Commissioners\u2019 Chair Terence Farrell. \u201cIn just four years it has grown to include four locations and catering services. Much of this success is down to the hard work of MH\/IDD Administrator Gary Entrekin and his team and the partnership that they have created with the CCIU, colleges and local businesses, all working to support the program for the good of the students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the guidance of the CCIU, the County Cup supports skill development and helps to identify interest for future career options in the food service job area. Students rotate through various jobs including customer service, serving, cleaning up, working as cashier and checking inventory. The students also develop work readiness skills including hygiene, punctuality, following directions, accepting supervision and independence.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jacalyn Auris, CCIU Director of Student Services, noted, \u201cThe County Cup represents an innovative way to meet the needs of students with disabilities, county employees and the general public. It offers a satisfying customer dining experience in an environment that shines a light on competent, friendly and skillful young workers, who happen to have a disability.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a model that works. It is a model that is successful in Chester County and, I believe, it could be successful anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST CHESTER \u2014 The County Cup, a pilot project established by the Chester County Department of Mental Health\/Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (MH\/IDD) and the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU), has been recognized nationally as an innovative program that modernizes and improves county government. The National Association of Counties (NACo) awarded the project its highest accolade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[817,29,2321,1027,8694,3960],"class_list":["post-30926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cciu","tag-chester-county","tag-county-cup","tag-education","tag-job-skills","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30926"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30930,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30926\/revisions\/30930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}