AWS History

AWS is a human service agency established in 1960. Its development began in 1957 when a community volunteer committee, that would ultimately become the United Way of Allen County, launched a study to consider the provision of work-related services for individuals with disabilities. From that study, the Community Coordinating Center for Rehabilitation and Health Services, Inc. was founded in 1960. While providing vocational rehabilitation was one of the goals, medical consulting, dental services and services for the blind were also part of the center’s responsibility.

 

By 1972 steady growth, both in terms of programs provided and in numbers of people served, prompted the agency's name change to Anthony Wayne Rehabilitation Center for the Handicapped and Blind, Inc., a designation that reflected the primary focus of our work at the time. We continued to seek new opportunities to serve people with disabilities and secure funding for those programs.

 

While a slow and steady approach best characterizes the agency over the first 30 years, vigorous describes the growth that began in the mid-1990s. Contributing factors included changing industry trends, development of new programs, additional funding sources and a corporate philosophy that encourages advancement into new markets.

 

From the beginning, the purpose of AWS has been to ask our clients, “What do you need?” The answers are what define the agency and include everything from services for kids whose parents could not otherwise afford them, to workshops that provide training, experience and development of job skills. They include therapeutic horseback riding facilities such as Red Cedar, teaching independent living skills to adults and providing therapies for infants diagnosed with developmental disabilities. These and numerous other AWS services answer the question, “What do you need?”