Disability Employment Mentoring Day

I have been silent for a few days - moving is always hard! Then, to get a bad cold that turns into Bronchitis - what can I say. But, I'm getting better, and wanted to continue sharing information with all of you.

Today, October 19th, is Disability Employment Mentoring Day. Here is the email that I received announcing what our government is doing to assist people with disabilities learn about and access employment opportunities. As I am plugged in to the disability empllyment activities, I wanted to share information that I receive with you.

"An Important Message from W. Roy Grizzard, Jr., Ed.D., Assistant Secretary for Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor

Dear Colleague:

Today, Disability Mentoring Day: Career Development for the 21st Century, thousands of young people with disabilities around the country are being brought together with employers from the public and private sectors for a day of job shadowing and hands-on career exploration.

Disability Mentoring Day began in 1999 with fewer than three-dozen student participants. Last year, 9,000 youth with disabilities participated along with over 2500 employer mentors.

Held on the third Wednesday of October each year, this day provides young people with disabilities on-the-job experiences about the many career options available to them. Disability Mentoring Day also serves to increase awareness among employers and the general public about people with disabilities as a highly talented and largely untapped source of skilled, dedicated employees.

Though Disability Mentoring Day takes place on this one day each year, the experiences of these young people with disabilities, and their employer mentors, is lasting. In offering first-hand experiences of potential career paths, Disability Mentoring Day benefits not only the young people who are mentored, but employers as well, providing them with recruitment opportunities, and an understanding of the great potential of youth with disabilities as active participants in the 21st century workforce.

Under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao, the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) continues its work in developing and influencing policies and practices that directly impact the participation of people with disabilities in the workforce. As we take part in Disability Mentoring Day 2005, we acknowledge the contributions of people with disabilities in the workplace, and reaffirm our commitment to the goals of the President's New Freedom Initiative—the full integration and participation of people with disabilities in the workforce and in their communities."

Look at the second, red, high-lighted information above:

"...increasing awareness amont employeers and the general public about people with disabilities as a highly talented and largely untapped source of skilled, dedicated employees."

The other blog about disabilities in the www.disabilitykey.com website focuses on helping people with disabilities obtain all of the benefits to which they are entitled! This blog focuses on the positive; what we can do, and how to focus those talents in the workforce.

Yes, people with disabilities are highly talented; we are a largely untapped source of skilled, dedicated employees! Some of us can only assis voluntarily to help others, as I do. Some of us want and need employment. This blog offers tools, ideas, website links, and any other information that I can come up with, to help those who want to work, get and maintain that job!

Stay tuned. And, if you have questions or ideas, please comment on these blogs.