On May 5, My Possibilities (MP) hosted a groundbreaking event to celebrate the beginning of a new chapter. Originally scheduled for March 2020, the groundbreaking was postponed due to COVID. During the last two years, the cost of building construction rose drastically, requiring MP to raise additional funds. A grant from the Rees-Jones Foundation acted as a catalyst to receive additional funds from the Mabee Foundation, allowing MP to close the gap on the capital campaign earlier this year. My Possibilities completed phase one of their $29.3 million capital campaign for the construction of the first two buildings on the Campus for Higher Learning. Both Bread financial, formerly Alliance Data, and the Rees-Jones Foundation contributed $2.5 million to the capital campaign.
When the Career Services Building, powered by Bread Financial opens in mid 2023, it will provide job training pathways and certificates in the field of customer service, retail, administrative support, culinary arts, technology basics, and hospitality, among others. When full, up to an additional 300 adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), lovingly referred to as Hugely Important People or HIPsters, will engage in programming that focuses on career readiness, job placement, and extensive coaching for HIPsters and the companies employing them.
“I have referred to this second building as the light bulb. This building to me is an acknowledgement of the right for the HIPsters to be a part of the workforce. For many people, when they get to a certain point in their education where they figure out what they want to do in the world, their next step is to get more education, more training. They need more time, more skills, to choose that career path, to be who they want to be in the world, to contribute in a way that is important to them. Our HIPsters have not been given that same opportunity. It has simply never been an expectation or a plan that they will graduate and then take that same next leap into training and education. This building is more than just double in space, more than providing support to another 300 HIPsters on a weekly basis. It is about providing a pathway to inclusion through the workforce in ways that the disabilities space has never seen before. We hope that this building serves as the example, a beacon, and a light bulb for organizations and people across the country that this population should be given an opportunity to continue learning, continue training, and to step into a job that they are proud of, and the world will accept them for,” said Michael Thomas, Executive Director of My Possibilities.
When complete, the 20-acre MP Campus for Higher Learning, just north of George Bush in Plano, will house the Fischer Family School of Life Skills, the Career Services Building, powered by Bread Financial as well as a therapy and communications center, wellness center, outdoor sports complex, dormitories, and retail center focused on training and employing adults with IDD. Additionally, My Possibilities is developing a 300-home, 180-acre inclusive residential community in Garland, Texas known as Mission Hills.
About My Possibilities
My Possibilities is a North Texas for-cause 501(c)(3) organization that serves as a pioneering leader in vocational education for adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities throughout North Texas. To learn more, visit mypossibilities.org.
About Bread Financial
Bread Financial is a tech-forward financial services company providing simple, personalized payment, lending and saving solutions. The company creates opportunities for its customers and partners through digitally enabled choices that offer ease, empowerment, financial flexibility and exceptional customer experiences. Driven by a digital-first approach, data insights and white-label technology, Bread Financial delivers growth for its partners through a comprehensive product suite, including private label and co-brand credit cards, installment lending, and buy now, pay later (BNPL). Bread Financial also offers direct-to-consumer solutions that give customers more access, choice and freedom through its branded Bread CashbackTM American Express® Credit Card and Bread SavingsTM products.
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