Square One and Back: MRCI
Brady Berg, who has disabilities, works part-time as a busser at an Olive Garden restaurant.
This article was published in the July 2025 issue of ICI's newsletter, FYI .
As states move away from center-based day programs and sheltered workshops paying subminimum wages to people with disabilities, service provider agencies trying to shift to meaningful day services and competitive employment face frequent challenges, including reluctant employers and family members wary of the changes.
Mankato-based MRCI encountered some of the same hurdles, but a Minnesota Department of Human Services grant led by a partnership between the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota set the stage for a nearly full-circle turnaround today.
MRCI was among a dozen Minnesota provider agencies that formed a cohort from 2018 to 2020 that was organized by the two university institutes, which are federally designated University Centers of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. Trainers from both institutes helped the agencies expand their capacity to support people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) to obtain and succeed in competitive job opportunities in the wider community.
A few months before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, MRCI was serving about 1,500 people, some still in sheltered workshops, enclave work crews, and facility-based day programs, with a strategic plan calling for gradually transitioning to job placements and day services in the community. Once the pandemic struck, only the community employment group could continue operating.
Seizing the moment, the organization committed to converting fully to competitive employment services. Within a few weeks, virtual services began.
By the end of 2024, the organization’s new community-based jobs and day services were supporting nearly 1,300 people, with employees working independently and earning at or above minimum wage. Today, more than 500 employers in southern Minnesota and the South Metro area are working with MRCI to place individual workers in competitive jobs. People using day services volunteer at local food pantries and other non-profits, go out to social and other community events, and learn money management and other life skills.
“As our state was talking about ending subminimum wages, we knew we had to get ahead of that because MRCI had such a large workshop and enclave operation,” said Nate Lotton, MRCI’s director of employment and day services. “We knew it was going to be a huge undertaking. Taking what we learned through that grant project and applying it to our new programs, with all the support we got from our board and management, we could see what our future was going to look like.”
For Brady Berg (pictured), that future is turning out pretty well. Now three years into a part-time job as a busser at Olive Garden, Berg quickly rolls silverware into napkins, cleans windows, and helps the wait staff. Previously, Berg, who has a seizure disorder and other disabilities, was part of a work crew that cleaned a local hotel.
Even though the work itself might seem similar, Berg said he prefers the restaurant job, where he earns higher pay, performs his job independently, and has more flexible opportunities to sit down when he needs a break.
“I work every day in the morning and on Friday until 2,” he said. “It makes me feel good to be on my own at work.”
MRCI’s Hannah Thompson, an employment specialist who supported Berg in getting the Olive Garden job, said he is thriving.
Not everyone chooses competitive employment, Lotton said. Those participating in the new day services are not only contributing to their communities now but learning skills that may lead them to jobs and other valued roles in the future.
And while some employers are still reluctant to hire, Brian Hodapp, owner of GC Distributing in Mankato, is a fan. He has several long-time employees from MRCI, some who came into the small family firm in the early 1990s, so he felt strongly about converting those work crews to employees at higher pay when MRCI was transitioning its program. The company makes plastic gloves and shoe coverings.
“This can be tedious work, and our employees from MRCI have been excellent, long-time workers,” he said. “We couldn’t be who we are without them, and I’ve seen them take more ownership over their work.”
Meanwhile, the Institute on Community Integration’s work in competitive employment continues. Other providers from the original cohort are thriving, said Danielle Mahoehney, community living and employment specialist at ICI.
“For example, Lake County DAC ended its 14c subminimum wage certificate at the end of 2024 and now supports 20 people in a North Shore town of about 3,600 who are working in competitive jobs,” she said.
In June, ICI completed another round of technical assistance with a cohort of eight providers under the Minnesota Transformation Initiative, and requests for assistance are increasing as more providers look to end subminimum wages and shift away from center-based models, Mahoehney said. Applications for the next cohort, running September 2025 to June 2026, close August 4. Click here to sign up for the MTI newsletter.