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Yuma, Arizona - The Excel Group Inc. was an honoree during the annual Work Place Excellence awards luncheon in Yuma. Excel received the Survivor Award in recognition of its successful transition from a focus primarily on mental health services to a broad based human services provider with greater variety of social services and programs now being offered.

This awards program was created five years ago to recognize organizations with excellent people practices, whether that is the business culture, the quality of leadership or its employee-friendly policies. As co-founders, the Southwest Arizona Human Resources Association and the Yuma Sun newspaper continue as co-sponsors of the annual nomination and selection process and the awards recognition event. To receive consideration for an award, an organization must first be nominated by one of its own employees. Finalists are selected to submit additional information that is reviewed and evaluated by out-town, impartial judges, often from other professional human resources organizations.

Doing business as The Yuma WORC Center, Excel provides vocational rehabilitation services in La Paz, Mojave and Yuma counties. This includes work adjustment training, job development and training, supported employment and center based employment.   Center based employment includes document destruction, laundry services, bulk mailing, janitorial, landscape maintenance and recycling opportunities. These services are then available to organizations throughout the region on a contractual basis.

The Excel Group, Inc. was founded in 1960 as The Yuma County Guidance Clinic, providing mental health services to southwestern Arizona, including Parker, Quartzsite, and surrounding areas prior to and since establishment of La Paz as a separate county.    The Yuma WORC Center was established in 1973. With the merger of The WORC center and Excel in 2008, WORC center programs are also now available throughout both counties. 

The Excel Group also offers shelter, transitional and permanent housing programs, including facilities in Parker. These are funded primarily through the Department of Housing And Urban Development (HUD), supplemented by the current RBHA.   Other services, funded by the Department of Economic Security (DES), include Healthy Families and First Things First, to enhance parent/child interaction, promote child health and development and prevent child abuse and neglect.

For more information about Excel’s WORC Center programs throughout La Paz and Yuma counties, contact Deena Fetzer at The Excel Group, Inc., 928-341-4111.