Transform the Dream of Self-Employment into a Reality

The RISE Program is an initiative of the Maryland State Department of Education's Division of Rehabilitation Services [DORS]. Begun in 1997, it's mission is to present self-employment as a vocational option to individuals with significant disabilities who are eligible to receive DORS services. RISE Program staff work with individuals and their families, rehabilitation professionals, and the business community to facilitate and encourage the successful launch and operation of consumer-owned ventures.

You may participate in the RISE Program in order to:

• Explore the feasibility of self-employment as a vocational option
• Develop a comprehensive plan for your business
• Determine if DORS can help you maintain, expand, or purchase an existing business
• Receive individualized technical assistance
• Explore multiple funding sources for your venture
• Obtain market information to help you select the right industry

“The RISE Program offers our consumer the resources they need to pursue self-employment,” says Robert Burns, the Assistant State Superintendent in Rehabilitation Services and the agency’s director. “For those individuals with a business plan and a needed product or service, self-employment is yet another avenue toward economic independence.”

Through the RISE Program, over 1,000 program participants have taken part in the exploration and pursuit of business ownership. As a result, there are scores of successful new ventures throughout the State of Maryland that are owned by entrepreneurs with physical, psychiatric, or cognitive disabilities.

The RISE Program has dramatically increased the success rate of new business start-ups through a systematic approach to training and individualized technical assistance that reduces the risk and the guesswork that leads to business failure.