The Employment Transition Center’s Lawn & Landscaping Service is a micro-enterprise in a field of high demand. In the summer, two crews (each with their own working Job Coach) are trained to use all types of lawn care tools and machinery. They tackle a multitude of outdoor maintenance projects including weeding, pruning, mulching, debris removal, lawn mowing, tree work, grass patching and Spring/Fall cleanup.

The training crew handles all the landscape work at our main offices in Norwich and the Employment Transition Center in Groton, as well as our fifteen supported residential homes throughout southeastern Connecticut. The crew handles jobs of all sizes at both private homes and businesses/organizations throughout southeastern Connecticut.
 
Leaf cleanup, extensive mulching and the crew’s new winter clean-out service was improved dramatically through the purchase of a dump trailer courtesy of the Edward and Mary Lord Foundation — plus the addition of a commercial chainsaw further extended the capabilities of the crew, enabling them to become a full-service lawn and landscape business.
 
In 2018, the Lawn & Landscaping Service generated enough revenue to cover the salaries of Participant employees — an enormous achievement, given The Arc ECT’s policy of paying minimum hourly wage to Participant employees. The success of the crew and their Job Coaches has attracted many more people with IDD who want to learn these valuable skills and choose landscaping/lawn care as a potential career.