THELAKER | 5 Michelle Jungermann ’99 has learned the fundamentals of starting and operating businesses as The Arc Ontario moved from sheltered workshops to mainstream ventures with a social purpose. “I got really moved by the idea of being able to help people in di cult circumstances,” she says. Michelle’s work with e Arc Ontario has involved serving those with disabilities, something that she says “never crossed my mind” at FLCC or her transfer school, Nazareth College. She started in 2002 as a service coordinator, writing care plans for clients. At that time,ARCs, as they were known, o en ran sheltered workshops that tailored manufacturing tasks for their clients’ abilities. e agencies bussed workers to the sites and back home again. Now, Michelle coordinates four businesses in which Arc clients work alongside community members, for example, by ringing up orders and cleaning tables at North Star Café. e Arc also operates Bad Dog Boutique, a retail and grooming shop in downtown Canandaigua, and Spot On Cleaning, which provides commercial cleaning throughout Ontario County. e newest startup that combines employees with and without disabilities is FLX Premier Bottling, which packages shampoo, lotions and body wash. Michelle has enjoyed learning from the business community, for example, getting advice from Finger Lakes Co ee Roasters as she scouted for a downtown Canandaigua site for North Star Café. e café, which moved from Farmington to 92 S. Main last fall, was the Arc’s rst social enterprise in 2017. “It was a great opportunity to educate the community on what people with a disability can do, rather than what they couldn’t do,” she says of the trend away from sheltered workshops. e Arc closed its workshop in 2010 and focused on nding employment training for its clients in the community. e social enterprises helped increase job opportunities while generating revenue that funds Arc services not covered by other sources, such as Medicaid. Michelle said the greatest challenge for her and her team of on-site business managers has been balancing the human service mission with the need to generate revenue, especially during the height of the pandemic. “We want to protect the people we support, but we also have to run a business,” she says. All in all, the trend toward inclusion has bene ted Arc employees and clients as well as the wider community. “I love what I do. Look at where this eld has come as I’ve grown with it,” Michelle marvels. “ e eld has changed, the acceptance has changed, the opportunities have changed.” ough she had not envisioned herself in this particular niche while in school, the approach to human services that she learned from faculty like Barbara Chappell and John Pietropaolo is a constant, Michelle says: “You have to meet everyone where they’re at in order to help them move forward.”
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