Patrick Dolan at Northwest Center in 2021 on the 25th anniversary of Education for All ​Northwest Center honors the memory of Patrick Dolan, the son of founding parents Duane and Katie Dolan. When Patrick was diagnosed with severe autism in 1950, the belief within the medical community and throughout society was that parents—mothers specifically—were solely responsible for the care of children with disabilities; there was no place for them in the “real” world. But that rejection only made Patrick’s parents more determined that he would get an education and acceptance. Katie Dolan helped fou ..read more

The memorial service honoring the life of Judy Heumann, legendary disability rights activist, will be livestreamed Wednesday, March 8 at 10 a.m. ET (7 a.m. PT).  Nora Genster, senior director of the Employment Transformation Collective at Northwest Center, shares her own remembrance of Judy as a mentor and friend: Judy Heumann was a titan of activism and a friend. In addition to her legacy as an activist, she also served as an incomparable mentor to the next generations of disability rights leaders. I have been struck by the number of my friends and colleagues who have been able to sha ..read more

Angelica and Steven, seated above, with colleagues at Brown & Brown. The employees at Brown & Brown Insurance would like you to throw out any preconceived notions about working with people who have a developmental disability. “You might automatically assume that, because they have a disability, that they’re unable to do the job,” says Account Executive Suzie Darst. “Out the window!” she exclaims. “Totally not the case. Not at all.” She knows, because she works with two colleagues hired through Northwest Center: Angelica, who works as an administrative assistant and manages the Brown ..read more

​Erika’s first few shifts at Amazon Prime Now warehouse had their challenges. The pace was hectic, she was negotiating a scanning system, and she was navigating a dizzying assortment of quadrants and aisle numbers. Several times, Northwest Center job coaches found her wandering an aisle, saying she was lost. But if you asked Erika how the shift went, she was all smiles. “It was a good day today,” she would say. “I learned a lot!” That unwavering optimism gave Northwest Center and Prime Now management confidence that Erika would get the hang of things. And it didn’t take long for their faith ..read more

Jacob is more than just an employee at Cafe 50, a restaurant and coffee shop on the Microsoft campus; he’s an Ambassador. The job title is printed on his uniform apron, and he points to it proudly. “He has a huge sense of pride,” says his mother Jeanette. “It’s his first real, paying job. He has a uniform. He’s treated like just another member of the team.” Jacob got his job busing trays and tidying tables at Cafe 50 through Northwest Center's Transition Services team and School-to-Work, a King Country program supporting students graduating from high school to find a place in the workforce ..read more

Imagine being expelled from school when you’re not even old enough to go to kindergarten. It happened to Gavin when he was just 14 months old. “Gavin wasn’t yet crawling, and his daycare said that if he wasn’t crawling at 18 months, he wasn’t able to stay,” says his mom Kate, who tears up at the memory. “The daycare is telling you he’s going to be kicked out, and you wonder, ‘What is a place for Gavin? Where would he fit?’” Thankfully, Gavin’s physiotherapist suggested Northwest Center Kids, where kids with and without disabilities learn and play together at two early learning preschools ..read more

Northwest Center is pleased to announce that our building and janitorial services social enterprises have a new name: OneNorth Integrated Facility Solutions. The new name OneNorth Integrated Facility Solutions (OneNorth IFS) embodies a commitment to creating cleaner, better maintained businesses for customers, and captures Northwest Center’s commitment to making business and the world better for people of all abilities. More Than a Name: A Mission to Believe In The name OneNorth Integrated Facility Solutions represents all of the existing facility and business services that we offer, and als ..read more

It's Hard to Imagine a More Challenging Beginning. ​Or a More Promising Future. ​Juana didn't meet the son she gave birth to until he was ten days old. ​ It was the summer of 2017. She was five months pregnant. When the weather turned extremely hot, it aggravated her asthma. “The air quality was bad,” Juana (pronounced JAAN-uh) says. “I kept going back and forth to the hospital saying I couldn't breathe.” Once in a hospital room, Juana went into cardiac arrest. To save both Juana and her baby, doctors placed her into a medically induced coma and delivered Terrance via C-section at jus ..read more

Two years ago, Cornerstone General Contractors had a vision: to expand  its definition of diversity, equity, and inclusion to also include people with disabilities. Today, the company not only employs but fully embraces and champions two people with disabilities. Cornerstone builds new facilities for regional schools so they hired employees with disabilities to work in the office and on the job site. Ben works as the assistant to the head of construction on a job site, cleaning, organizing, and inventorying tools and equipment. Stephen, hired through Northwest Center Employment Services ..read more

​Washington State House Bill 90 – Education for All was authored by the four Seattle mothers who founded Northwest Center – Janet Taggart and the late Katie Dolan, Evelyn Chapman, and Cecile Lindquist – with assistance from then-law students William “Bill” Dussault and the late George Edensword-Breck. Before H.B. 90 was passed, children with disabilities were either kept at home or placed in institutions. Back then, the common belief was that people with disabilities could not learn, and children with disabilities were barred from schools. Education for All was the first U.S. law to grant c ..read more