Opportunity Resources CEO Josh Kendrick says 2017 has been an “unprecedentedly tough year” for the charity, which works to find job opportunities and help for adults with disabilities. One bright spot in the year though, has been cooperation with local businesses. For the past six months Xplorer Maps has been working with Opportunity resources providing five to six people with work each day. According to Kendrick, it’s a deal that started at the local ice rink.

"The owner, Greg Robitaille is actually my son's hockey coach and we just happened to be talking one day at the hockey rink, he was discussing some of his struggles as a small business owner: the struggles he was having with finding workers to do the job we were able to design a system where our adults with disabilities were able to label [shipping] tubes for him."

Kendrick says cuts to local programs are still up in the air after the Special Legislative session. A move to cut services by the governor’s office was blocked by a legislative committee, but they could change course.

"We know that we may have some cuts in our case management services,' Kendrick said. "There is also an across the board cut that is out there, kind of floating, looming. An interim committee up in Helena has opposed that cut right now, but they could have another vote and take the block off, which would mean on January first we'd be looking at a 2.99 percent cut across all programs."

Kendrick says Opportunity Resources can provide a great service to local companies, because they have a workforce that is always here even when business heats up near Christmas time.

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