{"id":286674,"date":"2023-03-11T11:30:25","date_gmt":"2023-03-11T17:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=286674"},"modified":"2023-03-10T12:53:53","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T18:53:53","slug":"down-syndrome-cookie-company-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/down-syndrome-cookie-company-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"Cookie company CEO’s ‘whole mission’ is to open doors for others with Down syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Six years ago, Live Action News profiled<\/a> a young businesswoman who has Down syndrome and who had turned a childhood love of baking into a self-run cookie business. After struggling to find employment post-college, Collette Divitto<\/a>, then 26, founded Collettey\u2019s Cookies, and the business quickly gained traction amongst Boston locals. Fast forward to now, and Divitto\u2019s business employs 15 employees, many of them with disabilities themselves, and churns out thousands of cookies each week <\/i>for distribution in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and California, plus shipment across the United States and Canada. According to Divitto\u2019s personal website, Collettey\u2019s Cookies<\/a> has distributed over 550,000 cookies since 2017.<\/p>\n

Divitto\u2019s goal is more than simply professional success. Through her nonprofit, <\/span>Collettey\u2019s Leadership Academy<\/span><\/a>, which launched in 2018, Divitto\u2019s personally working to counter the abysmal unemployment rate nationally for people with disabilities. In 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics <\/span>reported <\/span><\/a>that just under 18% of adults with disabilities were employed. But Divitto is undaunted. As she told <\/span>CNBC<\/span><\/a> in 2022, \u201cCreating more jobs for people who are disabled, that\u2019s my whole mission.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Divitto aims to aid others with disabilities, including those with Down syndrome, in gaining trainable job skills that make them viable candidates in the real world. Through her nonprofit, she connects individuals with disabilities with resources, interview training, and mentorship to make their own dreams a reality. In a <\/span>recent workshop<\/span><\/a>, Divitto shared \u201cher path to total independence, working, paying her bills, and living on her own!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A post shared by Collette Divitto (@colletteyscookies)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n