Inclusive Pathways to Success (IPS) is a nonprofit trade school created for young adults (ages 21-36) with differing abilities that empowers students, serves as their ally and builds a new talent pipeline for the skilled trades in the DC area. We do not believe that our students’ disabilities, such as severe ADHD, autism, learning disabilities or mild intellectual impairment, are barriers to employment. IPS purposefully uses the term “differing abilities” and offers a new type of job training that addresses the unique educational needs of this group of adults who are too often underemployed in jobs with few growth opportunities or chronic unemployed.

IPS welcomes people who often go through life with unrealized potential and are not traditionally served by trade training programs because of their need for a slower pace and individualized attention in the classroom. Our team of trade educators as well as behavioral educators and therapists lead our students through project-based learning in which they gain hard and soft skills. Through small group instruction and explicit training in social and communication strategies that they can use in the workplace, IPS students learn the skills they need to secure gainful employment. IPS connects its graduates with potential opportunities upon completion of 1 or 2 years of study.