JFActivist

Disability Mentoring Day 2011—Connections

From AAPD (10.14.2011):

 

 

By Lara Schwartz,

We live in a connected world.  Facebook can tell us what our high school friends had for dinner.  Mobile phones and texting make many people available around the clock.  When I told my daughter how I used to go to a pay phone to call my cassette-based answering machine – and that I was really impressed at the technology that allowed me to play it remotely when it came out— she looked at me like I’m from another planet.  It is another planet in many ways.

One thing hasn’t changed:  when it comes to building a career, there is no substitute for face-to-face connections.  There is no substitute for a human relationship with someone who knows what we’re capable of doing.  Think back on your careers—for most of us, there is a critical human connection that made a difference for us.  A teacher, supervisor, or colleague who connected us with a wonderful opportunity.  Someone who reviewed our resume and encouraged us to apply for our dream job. An internship where we showed off our talents and proved that we we ready for the next thing.  A human, face-to-face connection that worked.

Today AAPD, our partners, and volunteer networks celebrate the launch of Disability Mentoring Day (DMD) 2011.  For thousands of students and job seekers across the country, DMD is provides a first-hand experience with the work force.  Through a variety of events such as job shadowing, job fairs, and workshops, DMD participants have an opportunity to make a connection that matters.  Over the years, DMD has led to lasting relationships that lead to career advice and internships or jobs. 

DMD provides a fantastic opportunity to connect. To learn more, visit http://www.aapd.com/site/c.pvI1IkNWJqE/b.5606851/k.CDB/Welcome_to_the_Disability_Mentoring_Program.htm

There are many other ways to promote employment opportunity for people with disabilities:  whether you choose to participate in a school mentoring program, hire a person with a disability in your own workplace, or advise a neighbor about career building, you are making a contribution.  Our nation’s laws also affect employment opportunity.  AAPD advocates for equal access to education and health care, investments in accessible transportation, and long-term support programs that promote rather than suppress employment opportunity.  Please sign up for action alerts so that you can be a part of this work:
http://www.aapd.com/site/c.pvI1IkNWJqE/b.5607285/k.42E6/Take_Action_Make_Your_Voice_Heard.htm

Then connect with friends, colleagues, and family members and ask them to join in, too.

Students with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities Prepared for Workforce

via the White House Office of Public Engagement (6.20.11): 

Making History for Students with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities

by Rayna Aylward

As high school seniors all across the country graduated this week, history was quietly being made in Washington, D.C. at the Department of Education for 23 D.C. public school students with developmental and intellectual disabilities. They, like their peers across the country, were graduating too. They all participated in a program called Project SEARCH. The 15-year-old program now operates in 39 states and four foreign countries, but this is the first year that the federal government has hosted the project in three agencies including the Departments of Education, Labor and Health and Human Services.

The goal of Project SEARCH is to prepare high school seniors with developmental and intellectual disabilities for employment. Instead of attending classes in a regular high school, the participating students reported to work every day in one of the federal agencies. They received vocational training from a special education teacher for part of the day, and then worked as interns in different offices, learning skills that would prepare them for paid employment in the government or private sector. Job coaches who were part of the Project SEARCH team accompanied the students to their assigned offices to teach them the specific job skills needed to fulfill each task...

>>>For the Full Article...

 

How do you feel about the expansion of Project SEARCH? Please share your thoughts in comments below.

 

Special Education Being Impacted by Poor Economy, CEC Calls on Congress to Protect Funding

via The Council for Exceptional Children (6.6.11): 

CEC Calls On Congress to Preserve Special Education Funding; Survey Finds Special Education Impacted by Poor Economy

A survey conducted by the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) – the largest international organization of professionals who work on behalf of children and youth with disabilities and gifts and talents – in collaboration with the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE), a division of CEC, reveals the poor economy is negatively impacting special education.

92% of respondents state there is – or is anticipated in the near future – an increased strain on the availability of services for students with disabilities, meaning that the poor economy is making it increasingly difficult to provide services and supports to students with disabilities...

 These survey results demonstrate that school districts across the nation are struggling to meet the needs of students with disabilities while confronting very difficult economic times…

CEC has been effectively advocating for maintaining and increasing funding for special education:

…In February, CEC and its members fended off efforts by the House of Representatives to cut IDEA Part B by over $500 million. Unfortunately, this funding was restored to IDEA by taking funding from two other important education programs: school improvement and professional development grants. CEC opposes any effort to take from one education program to fund another…

Join CEC in preserving special education funding by visiting CEC’s Legislative Action Center!

>>>To Read CEC’s Full Report…

 

How is the poor economy's impact on special education being felt in your area? Share your thoughts in comments below. 

Walgreens Wins Big with Disability Employment Program

via DCvelocity.com (6.6.11):

Walgreens wins big with unique employment program

by Peter Bradley

...Randy Lewis, senior vice president of distribution and logistics for Walgreens, was the driving force behind Walgreens' extraordinary program to employ people with disabilities at its DC in Anderson, S.C. We first wrote about that effort in October 2007. In that story, we noted that Walgreens had committed to the plan even before selecting a site for the facility. And it was never seen as a short-term initiative or social experiment. Walgreens' decision to locate in Anderson was largely driven by the area's sizeable labor pool of disabled workers and the support services needed to help them succeed. "We wanted a sustainable model," Lewis said at the time.

And sustainable it has been. Today, workers with disabilities make up 40 percent of the work force at the Anderson DC, performing the same work as their more typically abled co-workers for the same pay. Walgreens has expanded the program to other facilities, most recently to its newest DC in Connecticut. And the Walgreens example has inspired other companies, including Lowes, Best Buy, Meijer, and Sears, to make similar efforts...

>>>For the Full Article...

 

How can the Walgreen's employment program for PWD serve as a model for other companies seeking to promote inclusivity and diversity?  Share your thoughts in comments below.

Youth with Disabilities Interning On the Hill, AAPD's Leah Katz-Hernandez Weighs In

Via The Hill (5.16.11):

On-the-job training

By Debbie Siegelbaum

Maggie Kollmorgen just finished her internship on Capitol Hill, performing mail and typing duties in Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s (D-Ariz.) office.

“It’s been very good for me to work here,” she told The Hill. “It was a good experience for me to do.”

While her duties may have been typical of most interns, Kollmorgen is anything but. Born with Down syndrome, she is part of a unique new program matching individuals with intellectual disabilities with congressional internships.

This internship program isn’t just a political issue for initiator Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.); it’s a very personal one. He has a 21-year-old son with Fragile X syndrome, an X-chromosome abnormality.

“My family — plus many other families with kids with intellectual disabilities — typically they go through a high school process, and then they drop off the educational face of the earth,” Harper told The Hill.

Last year, the congressman, in conjunction with the House Administration Committee staff and George Mason University, started the congressional internship program for people with intellectual disabilities to foster independence and teach workplace skills.

The program offers GMU students with special needs — typically ranging in age from late teens to mid-20s — the opportunity to work in lawmakers’ offices and perform workplace tasks.

“If you look at some of the tasks our interns are performing — be it filing, data entry — these are tasks that typical interns do, and these students are more than capable,” said Salley Wood, program coordinator and Administration Committee spokeswoman.

Wood said the pilot internship program in spring of 2010 included just six congressional offices. As of the spring 2011 semester, that number had jumped to 16.

Both Harper and Wood are hoping that number grows. To that end, the program brought on a fellow this month to help coordinate with member offices and increase awareness about the program around Capitol Hill.

Leah Katz-Hernandez, an HSC Foundation Youth Transitions Fellow at the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), is more than familiar with the workforce roadblocks and obstacles faced by those with special needs.

Katz-Hernandez is deaf, communicating to The Hill through a sign-language interpreter. She said her goals for the program include overcoming misconceptions and stigmas about what people with disabilities can accomplish.

“This is a great opportunity to place people with intellectual disabilities into the workforce, to help people who don’t have previous experience with individuals with intellectual disabilities realize that those people are in fact capable,” she said. “People with disabilities really do want to work; they’re very motivated. They’re very frustrated because of the discrimination they experience.”

Katz-Hernandez experienced that discrimination firsthand on Capitol Hill, when she interned here through a separate AAPD program.

“Someone tried to place me in an office on the Hill, and as this office contact heard about my background and qualifications, this person was impressed and interested in me,” she said. “However, once the person found out I was deaf, the reaction changed to ‘What could a deaf person do in a congressional office?’ 

“When I heard of what had happened, it really hit me: Why can’t a deaf person work in a congressional office?” Katz-Hernandez said. “That incident really showed how much people have no idea about what deaf people are capable of. They only think of what hearing people can do.”

>>>For the Full Article

How do you feel internship programs, such as the one Rep. Harper initiated on the Hill, can change popular perceptions of what people with disabilities are capable of? Share your thoughts in comments below.

Disability Employment: PWDs an Untapped Resource Says Chamber of Commerce

From the US Chamber of Commerce (4.19.11):

Workers With Disabilities: An Untapped Resource

by Tom Donohue, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

It’s hard to imagine with 8.8% unemployment that America will soon be facing a worker shortage as 77 million baby boomers begin retiring. Many businesses already face a skills shortage, unable to find qualified workers for positions that are open. There is a great untapped resource, however, to which these businesses can turn—individuals with disabilities.

Unfortunately, too many employers are not aware of the pool of qualified workers with disabilities, do not know how to reach them, and are concerned about the perceived costs and challenges of providing accommodations.

The U.S. Chamber and the Business Leadership Network, now called USBLN, hosted a conference last week to highlight employer best practices in hiring and accommodating workers with disabilities. USBLN is a national organization that helps build workplaces where people with disabilities are respected for their talents. I was honored to chair this organization in the 1990s. At the event, many companies shared their success stories about employing and advancing people with disabilities, marketing to consumers with disabilities, and contracting with companies owned by people with disabilities to the benefit of their bottom lines...

>>> For the Full Article

Walmart Awards $600,000 to AAPD for Internship Program

From AAPD  (2.15.11):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                              

Walmart Awards $600,000 to AAPD for Internship Program

Money to fund leadership opportunities for students with disabilities in the nation’s capital

WASHINGTON, DC – February 15, 2011 – The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) is excited to announce the investment of $600,000 from Walmart, with support from the Walmart Foundation, to support a significant expansion of AAPD’s internship opportunities in public service for students with disabilities.

Working together over the next two years, AAPD and Walmart will build the new AAPD Summer Internship Program with opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and law students with all types of disabilities from all around the country to intern with members of Congress, Congressional Committees, the Executive Branch, federal agencies and offices of government affairs. AAPD and Walmart firmly believe that a key to professional, personal, and academic success for students with disabilities can be the life-changing experience of a Washington, D.C. summer internship. 

AAPD is building on its pilot Congressional and Federal IT internship programs, sponsored by the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF) and Microsoft, respectively, over the past 10 years. 

“Together we have learned the tremendous impact these internship opportunities can have on the lives and futures of young people with disabilities, and AAPD is thrilled to expand these opportunities through our new program and partnership with Walmart,” said Helena Berger, AAPD’s Acting President & CEO.  “Walmart’s grant is the largest single investment in the history of AAPD.”

For 10 years, AAPD has offered Congressional and federal agency summer internships to undergraduate students, placing more than 125 interns with all types of disabilities in Washington internships. This new partnership with Walmart will allow AAPD to grow exponentially its Washington, D.C. Summer Internship Program, hosting 28 interns this summer, and many more in future years. The AAPD internship program will now also be open to college students, law students and other graduate and professional students with disabilities, and will offer a wider group of young leaders with disabilities exposure to careers in public service and government…

>>> For the full release

Internship in DC on Disability Rights Law & Policy

From Burton Blatt Institute (1.12.11):

BURTON BLATT INSTITUTE
At Syracuse University

DISABILITY RIGHTS SUMMER LAW & POLICY INTERNSHIP IN WASHINGTON, DC

Open to Law Students Completing Their 1st or 2nd Year
Application Deadline: March 7, 2011
Stipend: $5,000

The Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University is now accepting applications for the Summer Law and Policy Internship in Washington, DC. This internship offers select law students the unique opportunity to work on legal projects dedicated to research, writing, analysis, and policy development in the area of Disability Civil Rights.

The mission of BBI is to advance the civic, economic, and social participation of people with disabilities worldwide. BBI is a national and international leader in research, outreach, education, and advocacy on disability issues. 

This internship is 40 hours a week. This year's projects may include:

• Research and policy development regarding the impact of federal and state policies on access, employment and financial security of individuals with disabilities;

• Analysis of proposed regulations implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act, Sections 503 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, Fair Housing Act, and other federal laws;

• Working with the Disability Rights Bar Association, a national group of disability rights attorneys;

• Developing state and federal policy recommendations regarding accessible technology, business ownership, fair housing, asset development, transportation, and employment for people with disabilities;

• Evaluating systems-level policies and practices for improving outcomes for students with disabilities (K - Grade12);

• Meeting with national disability rights advocates, federal regulators, and others.

The internship is based in Washington, DC, will last 8 weeks from June to August, and has a stipend of $5,000. Applicants should be first or second year law students with a demonstrated a passion for social justice and a commitment to public interest work. Past activist/organizing experience and involvement with disability rights and disability issues is a plus. People of traditionally under-represented groups, particularly members of the disability community, are strongly encouraged to apply.  For more information on BBI, see http://bbi.syr.edu

The deadline to apply is March 7, 2011. Selections will be made by April 11, 2011.  Please submit a cover letter, resume, and 2 references via email to  Eve Hill, Senior Vice President  – [email protected] or fax to 202-296-2047 (no calls, please).

White House Internship Opportunity, Summer 2011

From the White House (12.21.10):

The deadline for the Summer 2011 White House Internship Program is January 9, 2011

Please circulate to your networks.
 
We are writing to let you know that the White House Internship Program’s summer 2011 application has been posted. The application deadline is Sunday, January 9. We hope that you can share the information with student leaders across your network. For more information and to apply, please visit www.WhiteHouse.gov/internship.
 
"This program will mentor and cultivate young leaders of today and tomorrow and I’m proud that they will have this opportunity to serve…I want to commend all who apply for their desire to help through public service to forge a brighter future for our country.”
 
—President Barack Obama, May 22, 2009
 
President Obama believes in the capacity of young people to move America forward. He is committed to providing young leaders from across the nation an opportunity to develop their leadership skills and fostering a continued commitment to public service through the White House Internship Program. This hands-on program is designed to mentor and cultivate today’s young leaders, strengthen their understanding of the Executive Office of the President and prepare them for future roles in public service.
 
To learn more about the program, please visit whitehouse.gov/internships.
 
How To Apply:
 
Go to: www.whitehouse.gov/internships
 
A completed application includes:
 
two essays
three letters of recommendation
resume

Senate Confirms Former AAPD Intern and Disability Advocate to To National Council on Disability

From AAPD:

On, June  20, 2010 the Senate unanimously confirmed MEAF-AAPD Congressional Intern Alumnus, Ari Ne'eman, to serve on the National Council on Disability alongside President Obama's seven other nominees.   Founder and President of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN), Mr. Ne'eman will be the first autistic person to serve on NCD, and his confirmation has been eagerly anticipated by the self-advocacy community since his nomination last December.

The Congressional Internship Program is coordinated annually by the American Association of People with Disabilities in partnership with the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF).  The program places college students with disabilities in summer internships in congressional offices.  Learn more about this and other AAPD programs at www.aapd.com and more about MEAF at www.meaf.org.

 

Ari interned on the House Health, Education and Labor Committee for Committee Chairman Rep. George Miller (D-CA) in the summer of 2009.

Congratulations to Ari and to all the new members of NCD for their appointments to such an important post. 

>>> For the NCD Release

>>> For more from Disability Scoop