Joan Clark, CEO of Avenues To Independent Living, Receives Advocacy Award

Joan Clark, Executive Director and CEO of Avenues to Independent Living, received the highly coveted Rebekah Novemsky Advocacy Award for Competitive Integrated Employment from NJ APSE (Association of People Supporting Employment First - https://apse.org/ ).  She was honored with this award at this year’s NJ APSE Facing the Future Conference on Friday, October 10, 2025.

Joan Clark is the Founder, CEO, and Executive Director of Avenues to Independent Living. Through more than four decades of diligence, dedication, and determination, she has built Avenues into a pillar of service in Southern New Jersey.

Her leadership is rooted in resilience. Coming from meager beginnings, Joan knew struggle firsthand. Life delivered its share of hardships, yet she met each challenge with courage — getting back up every time, stronger and more determined. As a single mother working to put food on the table and keep a roof over the heads of her young children, work was a necessity. Providing direct care, academic support, and supported employment in a school for students with special needs may not have been her original ambition, but it became the doorway to her calling.

For over 40 years, Joan has worked directly with the developmentally disabled community in countless capacities. Supported employment became her passion, placing countless youths into gainful employment. Joan saw, time and again, the life changing power of employment. Joan’s vision for her students was to establish ongoing support to maintain their employment, fostering independence and autonomy in their lives. That insight became her mission — one that inspired her to earn her degree in Special Education and conceptualize Avenues.

Recognizing a gap between the educational system and attaining/maintaining employment for individuals with disabilities, Joan launched Avenues to Independent Living to bridge it. Her commitment has not only transformed lives but also created jobs — today, Avenues employs more than 300 people in Southern NJ.

Joan’s impact extends far beyond her organization. She has partnered closely with The ARC of Gloucester County, served on the Woodbury Child Development Center Board for 22 years, and contributed to the Gloucester County Disability Advisory Council for many years. Her vast network of advocates — including clients, families, employees, volunteers, friends, and community partners — shares her mission of opening hearts and minds to the gifts and abilities of the disabled population.

Joan’s advocacy for competitive integrated employment is both personal and professional. She has championed the belief that individuals with significant and complex needs deserve the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to their communities and workplaces. Under her leadership, Avenues has developed customized employment programs that match individuals’ strengths and interests with real job opportunities, ensuring fair compensation and long-term support all across Southern New Jersey. She has worked tirelessly to educate employers, policymakers, and the public about the value of inclusive hiring practices, often drawing from her own lived experience to amplify her message.

Her passion continues to inspire. Through her unwavering commitment to her clients, their families, her staff, and her community, Joan has cultivated an experienced, compassionate, and devoted body of advocates. She embodies the belief that every person deserves the opportunity to achieve their own vision of independence and a full, meaningful life — a belief she champions every single day.

Joan Clark has decades of advocacy, innovative leadership, and personal dedication to inclusive employment. Her work has not only transformed individual lives but also reshaped systems, opened doors, and built bridges — ensuring that people with disabilities in New Jersey have access to the dignity, purpose, and opportunity that come with meaningful work.

The Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE) is the only national membership organization focused exclusively on Employment First to facilitate the full inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace and community.

APSE members recognize that everyone has abilities to contribute and their work should be recognized and rewarded with fair pay, creating inclusive workplaces. Employment enriches and adds meaning to every life, and workplaces and communities are enhanced when they embrace differences.