COORDINATORS’ GAZETTE American Association of People with Disabilities Volume 1, Issue 1 January 1, 2007 Inside this issue: Power of Presence article 2 Gratitude article 2 Leadership Meeting 6 Mentoring Activities 8 DMD 2007 Meetings 9 Special points of interest: DMD 2007 Leadership Meeting Conference Calls Gratitude Websites of Interest (DMD Logo) Happy New Year, Coordinators! (photo of Shonda McLaughlin) Greetings, Everyone! Well, you all spoke of the need to have some sort of avenue and link, and I am trying to fulfill that need. Now, you have Coordinators’ Gazette, which was developed to reflect all of your efforts, passion, and genuineness regarding the enhancement of the quality of life of people with disabilities. The purposes of this newsletter are to: (1) assist in giving state and local coordinators, as well as other participants of Disability Mentoring Day (DMD) a sense of “collective” identity; (2) foster communication among the readers; (3) provide a core avenue for coordinators that can serve as their “voice,” year-round; (4) share information related to persons with disabilities, mentoring, leadership, service, education, among other things; and to (5) build long lasting relationships. In other words, we can continue to build our “community.” We will publish the newsletter three to four times per year, but we need input from you. If you want to highlight certain businesses, share success stories, or any story, post a job, share an event, share a website with us, please send them to me at shondamc@verizon.net. Certainly, we will publish all that we can, when possible. I hope you enjoy the newsletter. By the way, in this issue, I tried to share as many photos as possible, but they are also in a photo show at http://beta.photoshow.com/watch/vQ6XA9bm, and they will be on our website at http://www.dmd-aapd.org/gallery/photogallery.php. Happy New Year! Disability Mentoring Day 2006 It has been almost three months since that BIG day; everyone has “rested,” somewhat; and most of the reports have been submitted….Right? Now, we can celebrate and showcase some of the activities that have taken place across the country. Exposure is important. Based on the reports and conversations, overall, Disability Mentoring Day (DMD) 2006 was a success. The National Report will be available on-line January 22, 2007, which will consist of a compilation of all reports submitted. Afterwards, DMD 2006 forms will be revised and uploaded to the website, too. Since you all are the reason DMD is so successful, I want to “thank you” for what you do for consumers with disabilities—year-round. Thank you. Photo of Shonda McLaughlin’s signature End of Page 1 Start of Page Two Two Photos of mentors in different states. One Photo of Ms. Scottie Allen. The Power of Presence: Increasing Workplace Receptivity by Rob McInnes, adapted from Diversity World This past month, as part of my work with the Oregon Business Leadership Network, I had the pleasure of speaking with Erin Riehle, head of Project SEARCH in Cincinnati. Working with eight different Cincinnati-area companies, Project SEARCH operates internship programs for ninety-six students with significant disabilities. (Look for more information on Project Search later in this issue.) One particular comment that Erin made has really stuck with me in a “think about it some more” way. Speaking about her own employer, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, she said: “If our business tried to work with every agency in town to hire a person here or there, we might have two or three employees with significant disabilities… they would really be almost like token employees. Those numbers are not enough to change culture or practice. However, when you take twelve student interns and, in the course of a year, move them through three to four departments where they are learning real skills, you immediately begin to change culture in an organization. You make it more acceptable to consider a person with a significant disability as becoming a permanent part of that environment.” In reflecting on Erin’s comment, it suggests to me that the more people with significant or obvious disabilities that are present in a workplace (in a positive context), the more receptive that workplace will be to adding more of such individuals to their workforce. Experientially, it makes sense to me. I think of so many companies that I have visited who have nothing but able-bodied folks in their workplaces and are so anxiety-ridden at the prospect of even considering someone with an obvious disability for a open position. Then I think of the Hewlett-Packard facility that I visited in Roseville, California where, within the three minutes it took to walk from the front door to the meeting room, we encountered half a dozen employees with very significant and visible disabilities (folks with white canes and guide dogs, folks chatting in ASL, folks using power wheelchairs, etc.). I have no doubt that this HP workplace would be much more receptive to hiring another person with a disability than most others I’ve visited. I think Erin’s observation is right on. The Project SEARCH internship programs are doing more than just providing valuable work experiences for their students. They are simultaneously, and by design, massaging and changing corporate culture and the receptivity of those workplaces to employing people with disabilities. I (Continued on page 4) (Beginning of Article #2) Gratitude As you know, I began working at AAPD early September. During that time, I met Ms. Scottie Allen, who assisted many of you in various ways regarding DMD and Darden! Similarly, she assisted me with preparing for my current role as Coordinator, and I am very grateful to her for all of her guidance. Most of you have not met her, but she is pictured to the left. I told her that I would include her in the first edition of your newsletter because she is the one who really “knew” you all, planned, and organized many things. Basically, she worked hard and did what she could while she was here. Moreover, she truly cared for you all. In fact, she still does. I wish her “the best” with her academic and career goals. Undoubtedly, she will be successful. (End of Page 2) Start of Page 3 Collage of DMD Activities from Syracuse, NY One large photo collage. (End of page 3) Start of Page 4 Photo of mentees, no caption Quote from article, “...We need to consciously begin to infiltrate our workplaces…” Photo #2 of Mentees and Mentor Power of Presence, cont’ (Continued from page 2) have written here before about my strong conviction that the most effective way to overcome attitudinal barriers in the workplace is to maximize the opportunities for positive contact between employers and people with disabilities. (See: April 2003 and September 2003 issues.) I believe that Project SEARCH is a dramatic example of what, for purposes of this article, I am going to refer to as the “Power of Presence”. If there is some truth to this idea that the more exposure/contact that companies/employers have with people with disabilities (particularly in work-related environments), the more receptive they are going to be to employing them, why is it that so little conscious and focused energy goes into maximizing those types of contacts? We need to let our creative juices start to flow purposefully in this direction. We can’t continue to focus so much of our resources on just knocking on the door of unsuspecting, uninformed, inexperienced employers and encouraging/admonishing them into hiring “someone with a disability”. We need to consciously begin to infiltrate our workplaces with the Power of Presence. Here are a few examples from my own experience… Years ago, I was inspired by a program of the Employer’s Forum in Great Britain. Many of the top companies in GB outsource their management training needs to one specific company. They send all of their key staff to management training courses at that company. The Employer’s Forum (representing many of the biggest customers for that training) approached the training company and asked that they set aside a certain number of seats for people with disabilities who were running non-profit companies. That program was established and from then on, all of the corporate folks who took management training had classmates with disabilities. Based on that model, I designed up a program in Canada called the Training Partners Program. In several cities, we invited a dozen or so companies to allow (pre-screened) job seekers and professionals with disabilities to attend the internal training programs that these companies already ran for their employees – ranging from basic computer applications through to advanced software development. The people with disabilities acquired marketable skills and made valuable professional connections. The companies benefited by using it to dismantle the attitudinal barriers in its workforce and to educate their trainers on how to make their training methods disability-friendly. Subsequently, I worked for Project HIRED in Santa Clara, California who had developed a similar program. As well as bringing the Power of Presence to the training classes of their partner companies, their Corporate Training Partners program has allowed their job seekers to take advantage of training opportunities valued up to $250,000 annually. In years past, I ran a sheltered workshop for people with developmental disabilities. We wanted to get people jobs in the community, but we were up against that typical resistance. We wanted to begin to expose our business community to our workers in a new, non-threatening way. I want to mention two of the opportunities that we took advantage of. First, we entered a team in the city’s baseball business league. We were just another company - just another team; but half of our team was made up half of our workers with developmental disabilities and half of non-disabled employees. Similarly, every year there was a “Corporate Challenge” in our city – a fund-raising obstacle race in which teams from dozens of companies competed for prizes – we entered our (roughly half and half) team every year. Both of these activities gave us a “place at the table” where businesses/employers met. Both of them created opportunities (Continued on page 5) (End of page 4) (Start of page 5) Power of Presence, cont.’ (Continued from page 4) for companies to meet and get to know people with disabilities on familiar ground and in a positive context. I think that one of the most powerful and widespread initiatives that promotes the Power of Presence is Disability Mentoring Day in the United States. Disability Mentoring Day (held every October) enables students and job-seekers to spend part of a day visiting a business or government agency that matches their interests and have one-on-one time with volunteer mentors. From humble beginnings roughly eight years ago, it now annually involves over 12,000 participants in all 50 states. A similar program called “Face-to-Face” thrived in Canada for a decade or more – until its funding was shamefully gutted by the federal government. (Remnants of that program, now operating solely as local initiatives, still thrive in pockets throughout the country.) Testimonial upon testimonial from both these initiatives underscore the way that attitudes are changed, misconceptions are corrected, relationships are built, and internships and job opportunities open up – all because of a once-a-year opportunity for people with disabilities to be welcomed into workplaces in their communities. I once worked closely with people from a large IBM facility. I knew that IBM took (well-deserved) pride in their proactive employment practices with respect to people with disabilities. I did, however, gently challenge them on the lack of people with developmental disabilities in their employ. They told me that they just didn’t have any jobs that people with developmental disabilities could do. The Employee Relations Manager, however, couldn’t sleep well on that note. Within a few months, he arranged to contract out their central printing function to a community-based organization that began to run that operation with a workforce that included folks with developmental disabilities. (Thank you Rich!) Throughout the course of the workday, the folks working in the print shop interacted regularly with all of the departments in the building. Relationships were formed, talents were recognized, and soon people from the print shop were being hired into regular IBM positions throughout the building - the Power of Presence in action. I hope that these examples have inspired some of our readers to come up with their own design for Power of Presence initiatives. I am not aware of anywhere where this type of initiative has ever been brainstormed, let alone strategically addressed. Power of Presence, cont.’ I am hoping that some of you have your own examples of how you have brought this Power of Presence to employers and workplaces. I invite you to share your strategies, experiences and insights with our other readers in our next issue. Please send in your comments and we will publish as many as we can. ~ Rob McInnes © Rob McInnes, Diversity World, November, 2006 Mr. McInnes can be contacted at www.diversityworld.com. Photo, far right, of Mentor and Mentee Quote mid article, far right, under photo number 1, “...one of the most powerful and widespread initiatives that promotes the Power of Presence is Disability Mentoring Day …” Photo #2 near the end of article of Mentor and Mentees (End of page 5 and article.) (Start of Page 6) Photo of Mentees mid-article, to the right Association of Youth Leadership Forums/NAGC/AAPD Joint Meeting Please do not forget that we are invited to participate in a joint meeting with the National Association of Governor’s Committees (NAGC) and the Association of Youth Leadership Foundations (AYLF). As mentioned before, this will be a great opportunity for us to (1) network; (2) meet others involved in various aspects of the transition of students with disabilities to work; (3) share ideas with other state and local coordinators; (4) provide feedback; and (5) learn of ways to develop or enhance your programs. In the meantime, the meeting will be held at Rosen Plaza Hotel, and the price range for the room is approximately: $109/night. I will send you their contact info, after everything is confirmed at that rate.  As for the registration fee, it will range from approximately $120-$150. All details have not been finalized, but I will have more information later this month, which I will send it out to you all. If any of you would like to present, let me know, please by phone (2024570046, Ext 26) or email, shondamc@verizon.net. Tentative Agenda April 29-May 1, 2007 Rosen Plaza Hotel, Orlando, FL Monday, April 30                              AAPD Meeting  9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.                          Welcome 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.                        Workshop 10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.                      BREAK  10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.                      Workshop  12:00 p.m.                                           LUNCH  1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.                        BRAG & STEAL SESSION  3 p.m. – 3:15 p.m.                              BREAK  3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.                         Workshop  Tuesday, May 1                                AYLF/NAGC/AAPD Joint Meeting  8:30 a.m.                                             Continental Breakfast  9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.                          Welcome                                                             Association overviews – brief what is …                                                             NAGC/AYLF/AAPD 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.                        Workshop 10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.                      BREAK 10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.                      Workshop 12:00 p.m.                                           LUNCH 1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.                         BRAG & STEAL SESSION 2:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.                         BREAK 2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.                         Workshop 4:00 p.m.                                             Extracurricular Activity – Disney backstage tour,                                                             offsite excursion of some sort…  6:00 p.m.                                             Joint dinner  Wednesday, May 2                           TRAVEL DAY (End of Page 6) (Start of Page 7) Photo of Mentee, top right Disability Related Web Links Mentoring.org Website regarding general mentoring issues. The ILRU (Independent Living Research Utilization) http://www.ilru.org/html/about/index.html National Mentoring Center http://www.nwrel.org/mentoring/, a project of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory National Youth Employment Coalition http://www.nyec.org/ Job Accommodation Network http://www.jan.wvu.edu/links/disres.htm This link takes you to a video and can assist with changing attitudes of people with disabilities: Soldier Turned Cover Boy http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=FCD93DBE-0400-4107-9A60-9C987330F589&t=m17&f=06/64&p=Source_Today%20Show&fg=>1=8816 National Association of Multicultural Education http://nameorg.org/ West Suburban Access News Association http://www.wsana.org/index.html Mobility International USA http://www.miusa.org/ Games on Developing Creativity Skills http://www.brainsavvy.com/classroom.htm DMD/Social Security Informational Tool-Kit http://www.dmd-aapd.org/docs/sites.php Assistive Technology of Alaska http://www.atla.biz/weblog (End of Page 7) (Start of Page 8) Photo of Mentee, bottom right corner A Year’s Worth of Mentoring (52 Ideas, One for Each Week of the Year) The following mentoring ideas are provided by MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership, 1600 Duke Street, Suite 300, Alexandria, VA 22314. Telephone 703.224.2200. Web Site www.mentoring.org. 1. Set your mentoring goals together 27. Work on a resume 2. Tackle some homework 28. Talk about dressing for success 3. Make dinner together 29. Do a pretend job interview 4. Go out for dinner together 30. Talk about how to look for a job 5. Make popcorn and talk 31. Talk about how to find a job 6. Go to a movie 32. Find a summer job 7. Go to a concert 33. Set up a work internship 8. Shoot some hoops 34. Talk about networking 9. Go to the library together 35. Talk about what it takes to get ahead 10. Just hang out 36. Talk about health insurance 11. Figure out how to program your VCR 37. Talk about taxes 12. Learn about pop music 38. Talk about balancing work and life 13. Talk about life 39. Talk about balancing a checkbook 14. Give a tour of your current job 40. Talk about balancing a budget 15. Talk about your first job 41. Talk about living within one’s means 16. Talk about planning a career 42. Talk about credit cards 17. Plan a career 43. Go bargain hunting 18. Get together with friends from work 44. Plan a week’s worth of meals 19. Take tours of friends’ jobs 45. Do a week’s grocery shopping together 20. Visit a local technical college 46. Go holiday shopping 21. Visit a community college 47. Write “thank you” notes 22. Talk about college 48. Go to a house of worship 23. Have your friends talk about college 49. Celebrate a friend’s religious holiday 24. Sit in on some evening classes 50. Talk about relationships 25. Work on applications together 51. Talk about personal values 26. Explore financial aid options 52. Talk about the future (End of Page 8) (Start of Page 9) DMD Logo Group picture of Mentees and Mentors Clip art (photo) of a calendar and pen AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ..."Empowering Persons with Disabilities Economically, Politically, and Personally..." Shonda McLaughlin, PhD, CRC Programs Manager 1629 K St. NW, Suite 503 Washington, DC 20006 Phone: 202-457-0046, Ext 26 Fax: 202-457-0473 E-mail: shondamc@verizon.net WE ARE ON THE WEB AT HTTP://WWW.DMD-AAPD.ORG/ DMD 2007 Conference Calls’ Schedule This year, I would like to pre-schedule the State Coordinators conference calls. So, please mark your calendars, but let me know in advance if you could attend, so that I can arrange the call. I will email you the call-in code round the meeting date. Our -meetings will run from 3:00pm-4:00pm ET. For those unable to attend, Minutes will be posted on the web. Certainly, electronic reminders and more information will be sent to you all as the date approaches. Meeting Dates: March 16, 2006 April 20, 2007 May 18, 2007 June 15, 2007 July 20, 2007 August 17, 2007 September 21, 2007 October 12, 2007* November 16, 2007 December 14, 2007* *If time permits, we will plan to meet. End of page 9 and Newsletter