Unified Services

The Harrison County Sheltered Workshop was incorporated under Missouri law in February 1974. A board of 26 directors was formed from all in attendance at an organizational meeting initiated by the Harrison County Association for Retarded Citizens. A start up grant for $20,000.00 was received from the Missouri Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities in 1975. The former vocational building of the South Harrison High School on South 18th Street was purchased by the Harrison County A.R.C., and the workshop was opened on August 25, 1975. There were 15 employees there the first day.

Rick Miller was the first manager. George Sobotka was the first supervisor, and Nita Peugh was the first (part-time) secretary/bookkeeper. The first contract job was assembling cap size-adjuster tabs for Lambert Manufacturing Company.

Much of the credit for starting the workshop is due to the Harrison County A.R.C. This group started in 1957 and consisted of parents with children with disabilities. These parents started a school for their children, who at that time were not being served by the public schools. Students came from all over Harrison County and also Gentry and Mercer counties to attend this school, which was funded 100% by donations. Sometime in the early 1960's, this school was taken over by the state and become a state training center. The parents continued to support this school and its students through their various fund raising activities. As these students graduated from state school, the A.R.C. saw the need to start a sheltered workshop to provide them with a place to work.
In 1979, an ad hoc committee of sheltered workshop board members formed the Harrison County Handicapped Group Home Corporation.

In February 1996, the sheltered workshop moved from the South 18th Street location to 501 South 26th Street. This move and expansion were made possible through two Neighborhood Assistance Program projects, which generated $329,000.00 in donations from the community. These funds were used to purchase the former Scamahorn medical clinic, remodel it, and put a 7,000 square foot addition on the east side. The doing business as name of Unified Services was adopted after this move.

Another Neighborhood Assistance Program project was approved in 2005 that raised $185,000.00 in donations from the community. This was used to remodel and equip the former Orscheln Farm and Home building for a retail business.

Management of Unified Services is vested in a fifteen-member board of directors. The list of past and current members reads like a who's who of our community. It is the support of these people and the community in general that has made Bethany a good place for our employees with disabilities to work and live.