2021 in Review: Malden and Metro North
As Triangle closes out its 50th year of service to the disability community of Massachusetts, we are taking a tour around the different cities, towns, and regions that we serve to highlight the impact that our champions, friends, partners, and donors are making in their local communities. If you haven’t already had a chance to support us, we welcome you to make an end-of-year donation here.
In the early 1970s, business leaders from the “Triangle” of Everett, Malden, and Medford came together to form Project Triangle, an organization that would provide people with disabilities an opportunity to build a supportive, loving community while having the opportunity to earn a paycheck. Over the ensuing decades, the organization has continually evolved and grown to support hundreds of individuals from these communities and neighboring towns. After many years of manufacturing and assembling products in our longtime home on Pearl Street, our programs have become 100% community-based for much of the past decade.
In early 2022, our two Malden-based day services locations will be combined at our new administrative headquarters and service site at 450 Broadway in Malden. This fully remodeled location will boast multiple classrooms with integrated technology for remote programming and amenities that will provide a welcoming environment to all of our participants. Whether they have been a member of the Triangle program for decades or are just starting as a member of our School to Career program, our new home at 450 Broadway will serve as an excellent home for all program participants in the years to come.
In 2021, Triangle provided the following services to Metro North communities out of its Malden-based service locations.
- More than 1,000 people with disabilities from Metro North communities were served by Triangle in 2021!
- 132 individuals from Metro North participated in community-based day services – a hybrid approach continued to be used to ensure that all program participants could stay engaged even when pandemic-related barriers presented challenges.
- These groups ran several community service projects, including canned food and sock drives, in order to help those in need.
- 36 participants participated in employment projects or were placed into competitive employment in the community – a welcome rebound as COVID-19 continues to impact the workforce.
- 11 members of these programs maintained their employment in 2021, while receiving ongoing support from Triangle team members.
- Triangle’s downtown Malden Testing Center location on Pleasant Street proctored 809 HiSET exams to local community members. In only its second year of operation, this test center has already become one of the busiest in the state!
- Triangle’s Workforce Development team supported 43 individual job seekers with disabilities from Metro North communities, while also providing pre-employment services to local high school students from Arlington, Belmont, Cambridge, Everett, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Watertown, and Winchester. In response to sky-rocketing demand, Triangle created an environmental services training program to help people with disabilities prepare for careers in facility maintenance and cleaning industries.
