Here at Fivestars, we’re celebrating our one-year anniversary and partnership with Hope Services, an organization that works to improve the quality of life for individuals with developmental disabilities.

To celebrate this milestone, we want to share what our partnership is all about and explain how our organizations work together to better our local community.

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Hope Services: A background

Hope Services, a California-based organization, is the leading provider of services to people with disabilities in the Silicon Valley. It serves 3,900 individuals ranging in age from infants to seniors. Hope partners with a number of businesses, like Fivestars, to provide employment for people with disabilities.

How the partnership began and blossomed

As you know, Fivestars offers a widely popular customer loyalty network and program for small and medium-sized businesses. When businesses sign up for our service, they receive tablets that employees and customers use to sign up for the loyalty program.

Fivestars-specific software must be loaded onto each tablet. The tablets must be put into stands, and they have to be packaged and shipped to new clients. And while it may not seem like much to have a tablet kit arrive at a business’ doorstep, there’s an immense amount of work that goes into the process.

“As the business grew, the volume outgrew what our internal staff could handle,” says Eugene Kim, warehouse manager for Fivestars. “We needed help.”

That’s when we reached out to Hope Services and began our partnership, moving our shipping and fulfillment duties into their Santa Clara warehouse space, offering steady jobs to clients with disabilities. Now, 30-50 clients work for us on a daily basis. The team of people assembles and ships an estimated 2,000 tablets each month.

“Hope clients handle 100 percent of our tablet assembly,” Kim says. “From making boxes to uploading the software, they’re the rock stars in our warehouse.”

A win-win for both organizations

Fivestars has become one of the largest and most reliable providers of work to Hope clients, but Sean Galvin with the organization says it provides more than jobs.

“Hope’s clients gain personal development, self-determination, social inclusion and material well-being through working with Fivestars,” he says.  “The ability to earn a paycheck provides clients with a sense of accomplishment as they are able to make a contribution to society.”

For Fivestars, the clients are providing much needed services with a work ethic that most companies only hope for.

“I shudder to think how we would function without them,” Kim says. “Aside from working hard, they bring so much life to our company and they are always eager to work. We strive to bring joy into our workplace and they do that in the best way imaginable.”

A bright future planned

Our company sees the partnership with Hope Service as part of its social responsibility. To give back to the community is part of the company mission, and considering the initial success the partnership has experienced, Kim expects a bright, long-term future ahead.

“We’re confident this is a lasting partnership,” he says. “Hope clients are part of our company family now. We host BBQs and pizza parties together, and highlight superstar employees each month.”

The relationship we have formed with this group of hard-working community members makes us proud.

“To know that as a company we’re empowering a group of people by providing meaningful jobs is a great feeling and is so important to us as a company,” Kim explains.

“Fivestars is thrilled with this partnership, not just because work gets done, but because we’re truly making a difference in the lives of people that live right here in our community.”

Galvin agrees with Kim, and says Hope Services looks forward to continued work with Fivestars and praises the company for a commitment that reaches beyond their business.

“Fivestars is truly ahead of the curve ensuring that people with disabilities can provide high quality work,” he says. “Hope’s mission is to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities and Fivestars plays a major role in achieving this.”

Here at Fivestars, we also want to send a heartfelt “thank you!” to all our Fivestars users and businesses. A core aspect of our company’s mission is to help communities thrive, and your partnership with us, in turn, helps us achieve this for our Hope Services friends in the California Bay Area. We couldn’t do this without you, and are so grateful.