About Extended Employment

Extended Employment Sheltered Workshops are small, independent nonprofits that create real jobs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and they do it largely by running actual businesses.

Across Missouri, nearly 100 of these workshops offer contract services to local and national companies: think packaging, assembly, building maintenance, recycling, and more. Some run their own retail shops or manufacture their own products. The work is real, the paychecks are real, and the skills workers build are genuinely valuable.

Here’s what makes this model work: 60 to 80 percent of a workshop’s funding comes from the business services it provides, not from government grants. Workshops compete for contracts, serve customers, and manage their own operations. That self-sufficiency means Missouri gets roughly $4 back for every $1 it invests.

Employees are paid based on their individual productivity, with regular oversight from the U.S. Department of Labor. Staff often wear many hats: writing bids for corporate clients one moment, supporting a worker’s medical needs the next.

For many participants, an Extended Employment Sheltered Workshop isn’t a stepping stone to something else. It is the goal: a stable, supported environment where they can work, earn, and contribute, with the level of structure and care they need.