The Secretary of Labors New Freedom Initiative
Award annually recognizes non-profits, small businesses,
corporations and individuals that have demonstrated exemplary and innovative
efforts in furthering the employment and workplace environment for people with
disabilities, a goal of President Bushs New Freedom
Initiative.
President George W. Bush wants all Americans, including
Americans with disabilities, to have the opportunity to learn, develop skills
and engage in productive work said Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao.
The recipients of the 2004 Secretary of Labors New Freedom
Initiative Awards are organizations that recognize the value that persons with
disabilities bring to the workplace and exemplify that philosophy in their
daily operations.
This year Secretary Chao has selected nine recipients, who will
receive their awards on November 17 in a ceremony at the U. S. Department of
Labor.
Non-Profit Organizations Businesses Individual
Non-Profit Organizations
Marriott Foundation for People with
Disabilities Washington, DC
Founded in 1989, through a grant from the J. Willard and Alice S.
Marriott Foundation, the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities was
established to enhance employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
The Foundation brought together a team of national experts in employment of
people with disabilities, and charged them with developing a program that would
achieve the Foundations mission.
Following a series of employer focus groups, the experts
recommended a program that would address employers needs in finding and
retaining a skilled and committed workforce. The program, named Bridges . . .
from school to work, focuses on preparing skilled and committed young people
with disabilities to meet the hiring needs of employers. Bridges
prepares youth with disabilities for the workplace, promotes the benefits of
hiring candidates with disabilities to employers, and provides support to
employers during the recruitment, hiring and retention phases of employing
youth with disabilities.
Originally launched in Montgomery County, Maryland,
Bridges has expanded to the District of Columbia, Atlanta, Chicago,
Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco. All sites are operated in
partnership with local school districts, state vocational rehabilitation
offices and city and county workforce development boards. Additionally, each
Bridges site has a Business Advisory Council that provides oversight and
assures that program activities are responsive to labor market imperatives
The Bridges program is built upon a unique team of
professionals called Employer Representatives (ER). Each ER is responsible for
delivering every phase of the program to his or her participants. This
multi-faceted relationship allows the ER to gain an intimate understanding of
the skills, interests, dreams, and desires of each student, as well as
accessibility and accommodation needs.
Building upon the success of Bridges, the Foundation
launched Bridges Plus to help youth with disabilities focus
specifically on creating a career path that will yield ongoing vocational
growth and advancement. Each participant has an individualized Career
Development Plan, which prescribes full engagement for nearly two years, and
employs 90-day reviews and action planning to assure steady progress toward
vocational goals. Elements of this plan include assessment of essential
competencies for career development, self-advocacy, mentoring supportive
services, family training, successful employment and career advancement.
In its first 14 years, the program has enrolled 8,661
participants, of whom 6,588 have acquired competitive employment. By the end of
2004, Bridges will have served nearly 10,000 youth with disabilities,
placing almost 8,000 in competitive employment.
Project SEARCH Cincinnati,
Ohio
Project SEARCH is a collaborative effort between the Cincinnati
Childrens Hospital Medical Center, Great Oaks Institute of Technology and
Career Development, and the Hamilton County Board of Mental Retardation and
Developmental Disabilities. Project SEARCH was created in 1998 and coordinates
five distinct programs, including adult employment, high school transition,
health care training, vocational education clinic, and program replication and
dissemination.
Headquartered at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital, Project
SEARCH uses a business model to provide meaningful employment and education
opportunities for individuals with significant barriers to employment. The
model is characterized by non-traditional jobs for people with disabilities and
strategic partnerships with industry, education and training, and support
services. Service providers, funded by Great Oaks and the Board of Mental
Retardation/Developmental Disabilities, are located full-time at
Childrens Hospital, where they become familiar with the jobs, managers
and hospital protocol. Because of this onsite presence, they understand the
employers needs and can assess eligibility requirements and provide
job-training, job coaching and follow-along services to their clients so that
they can perform the specific jobs the hospital needs to fill.
Over 150 individuals with disabilities have been employed through
Project SEARCH in challenging and rewarding jobs at Project SEARCH sites and
throughout the Greater Cincinnati area, including two additional hospitals and
a major bank. On average, those in the adult employment program earn more than
$8 per hour, work an average of 33 hours per week and receive full
benefits.
The High School Transition Program is a one-year, worksite-based
school-to-work program for high school youth with developmental and/or physical
disabilities. In addition to gaining work experience and career assessments,
students participate in employability classes each morning, which focus on goal
setting, career exploration and decision making, communication, job search,
employment, money management and independent living.
The Healthcare Training Program provides customized short-term
training for unemployed or underemployed adults at a socioeconomic
disadvantage, preparing them to enter skilled positions in healthcare.
Approximately 20 percent of the students in this program are persons with
significant physical and/or learning disabilities. In the first four years of
operation, 225 of 265 graduates entered employment after graduation.
Project SEARCH has been replicated in 10 hospitals in six
different states, and is expanding its reach into new industry sectors, such as
retail, insurance, small manufacturing and government.
Salt Lake Community College Skills Center
Projects With Industry Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) is an urban multi-campus
college serving the diverse needs of some 60,000 students in the Salt Lake City
area. SLCCs Skills Center offers open-entry/open-exit; competency-based,
non-credit courses, and intensive student support services for people who are
educationally, socially or economically disadvantaged or have physical, mental,
emotional or sensory disabilities.
The Skills Centers Projects With Industry (PWI), funded by
the U.S. Department of Education Rehabilitation Services Administration, has
been in operation for 20 years, and serves students with significant
disabilities -- those individuals who have the most difficulty in obtaining
employment.
This project is a multi-faceted training and employment program.
Services include business and computer courses, disability empowerment
training, career advancement, internships and placement. The project is
governed by a Business Advisory Council, comprised of representatives from
business, industry, education, government, Workforce Development, the Utah
State Division of Rehabilitation and PWI alumni.
Innovative practices include tele-training from home
for students with significant disabilities, including on-line mentors and
tutors available 24 hours a day; corporate coaching from an assigned business
person for each student; disability empowerment training for students and
awareness training for employers and organizations; Employment Job Clubs and
Workshops; and flexible training schedules. On average, more than 70 percent of
the Project staff are former students with significant disabilities.
Since inception, PWI has trained and placed more than 700 students
with significant disabilities. During the past five years, the project has
placed 168 persons with significant disabilities in gainful competitive
employment, 80 of whom had been unemployed prior to project involvement. On
average, each of the 168 persons increased their annual salary by $11, 232.
Businesses
A & F Wood Products Howell,
Michigan
A & F Wood Products, a family-owned and operated business in
rural Howell, Michigan, provides employment opportunities to individuals with
disabilities through accessibility support, training, and a workplace
environment that is user-friendly. Currently A & F Wood Products, which
specializes in the manufacturing of wood doors and frames, has 20 employees,
seven of whom are persons with disabilities.
Working closely with Michigan Rehabilitation Services, the state
vocational rehabilitation agency, and Work Skills Corporation, a non-profit
employment and training company, A & F Wood Products has actively sought
ways to broaden employment opportunities for workers with disabilities.
All new employees are given opportunities to experience different
workstations, based on their ability and interest. The company also provides
training that matches the employees learning style.
Among the accommodations the company has provided have been
rebuilt workstations, job coaches, accessible software for its computers,
reconfiguration of telephones, and adjusted work schedules to match public
transportation hours of operation. A & F Wood Products also offers its site
for job tryouts and on-the-job evaluations that allow individuals to determine
whether a job in a manufacturing environment is worth pursuing as a vocational
goal.
In addition, the company consistently utilizes community resources
to ensure a disability-friendly work environment. Management staff have met
with Social Security representatives to learn how they could support a worker
to live independent of Social Security. The company has also worked
cooperatively with the Commission for the Blind to accommodate visually
impaired workers, and it has invited an occupational therapist to assess its
facility and make recommendations for appropriate accommodations.
A & F Wood Products shows its commitment to a diverse
workforce, including people with disabilities, by using assistive technology,
partnering with organizations that have expertise in identifying potential job
barriers, and providing a diversified training program.
Hewlett-Packard Company Palo Alto,
California
Hewlett-Packard (HP) strives to connect people to the power of
technology and is working with local and global partners to build a foundation
for universal access to basic technologies. The company focuses on making its
own products accessible to people with disabilities and partners with others to
create and distribute assistive technologies.
The companys Accessibility Program Office guides
corporate-wide accessibility in product design, engineering, product
development, marketing, web, services, support and programs for persons with
disabilities. HP involves people with disabilities in the development of
accessibility guidelines, and in the design and testing of products and
services.
In addition, HP has been actively involved with the sourcing and
recruiting of persons with disabilities, through partnerships with a variety of
organizations, schools and external networks. The company has utilized
e-recruiting sources of job candidates with disabilities, developed
relationships with the University of Tennessees Career Opportunities for
Students with Disabilities (COSD) program and with the National Technical
Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and partnered with the US Business
Leadership Network and Vocational Rehabilitation Centers nationwide.
Among the workplace accommodations the company has made for its
employees with disabilities have been ergonomic office setups/environments,
special monitors or video devices, TTY telephones as part of the regular
help-desk supported office options, printers with audio signals, screen-reading
software, alternate tagging of images on its website, two-way pagers for deaf
employees, motorized carts for employees with mobility impairments, digital
real-time captioning, and enhanced lumbar support in company vehicles.
HP encourages a work environment that is inclusive, as well as
accessible. Various activities have been promoted by the company to ensure the
inclusive nature of the work place, as well as initiatives to encourage the
employment of individuals with disabilities. Internship opportunities,
including National Disability Mentoring Day, provide key opportunities for
employment. HP also partners with local schools to bring students with
disabilities to the company and matches them with HP mentors.
HP trains its employees on designing, producing, marketing and
delivering accessible products and services. It is the only IT manufacturer to
have the accessibility features of all its products documented and available
online. In addition, the company has developed the HP Developer and Solution
Partner Program, where assistive technology companies have free access to HP
technologies, platforms and operating systems to create their own innovative
solutions.
MBNA America Bank, N.A. Wilmington,
Delaware
MBNA America Bank is the worlds largest independent credit
card issuer, employing more than 28,000 people throughout the United States and
Canada. The company has instituted inclusive hiring and retention policies for
people with disabilities. Its management and training programs support a
diverse workforce, and its community outreach efforts impact not only
employment, but also the development of housing and transportation support
services for employees with disabilities.
MBNAs workplace policies have resulted in people with
disabilities routinely being hired throughout the company, as well as a unique
supported employment model that employs people with cognitive and developmental
disabilities in meaningful work at wages and benefits commensurate with similar
work grades. This model has grown from a pilot with four people with cognitive
and developmental disabilities at corporate headquarters in Wilmington,
Delaware, to a full-fledged Support Services Division of 340 employees who
provide integral business services across departments in Maine, Delaware, Ohio,
Maryland, New Jersey and Canada.
Managers from across all MBNA divisions have been educated and
trained to manage diverse workforces, including training in disability
awareness and etiquette. Each work environment offers hands-on learning
opportunities and onsite job coaching for the employees.
MBNAs business philosophy maintains that people who are
supported in their workplace, feel that their voices are heard in management
decision-making, receive encouragement and job-related skills training, and are
connected to tools and resources that support their work, are people who will
stay in their jobs the longest. Some Support Services representatives are
selected to participate in a Career Development Program, which offers employees
in certain grade levels developmental education and rotations through
MBNAs key business areas.
The employees of MBNA Support Services have a rolling retention
rate of approximately 96 percent on an annual basis. Approximately 1.4 percent
are promoted annually. The average tenure of these employees is 8 years, with
9.5 years for Support Services managers.
MBNA also reaches out to youth with disabilities, transitioning
them into employment positions through the assistance of many school district
transition coordinators. Students learn part-time during their last two years
of school, gaining key skills and knowledge in order to begin working full-time
for the company upon graduation.
Microsoft Corporation Redmond,
Washington
Microsoft Corporation, a business that boasts of more than 50,000
employees worldwide, offers unique employment opportunities for job seekers
with disabilities. Employees with disabilities contribute to the diversified
work force by assisting in developing and improving accessibility software,
while offering new technologies to accommodate current employees.
Microsofts commitment to employment of people with
disabilities is carried out through policies and programs administered or
carried out by its Accessible Technology Group and its Human
Resources/Diversity Group. Microsoft actively recruits people with disabilities
at job fairs and at traditional colleges for persons with disabilities,
including Gallaudet and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.
Microsoft is an active member of Career Opportunities for Students with
Disabilities (COSD) and hosted the organizations annual meeting in 2003.
The company also partnered with the National Business and Disability Council to
create the Able to Work Consortium and is an active member of the Washington
State Business Leadership Network.
Microsoft offers students with disabilities the opportunity to
grow and develop their workforce skills through affiliation with National
Disability Mentoring Day and sponsorship of summer internships for students
interested in careers in technology.
The companys Accessible Technology Group has approximately
40 people working full-time on product accessibility. This division and
Microsoft Press published a book titled Accessible Technology in
Todays Business: Case Studies for Success. The book uses actual case
studies from leading companies and government organizations to show readers how
accessible technology can help them retain their most valued employees, recruit
the best minds, and attract new customers. In March 2003, the company unveiled
the Microsoft Assistive Technology Vendor Program to expand support for
developers and manufacturers that design, build and support assistive
technology products. More than 70 leading assistive technology vendors have
joined this program.
Microsoft relies on its employees with disabilities to provide
valuable perspectives on how the company develops products and services, how it
markets them and how it can improve customer satisfaction. The company has a
comprehensive accommodations program, which conducts about 240 customized
evaluations and solutions implementations per year. Among its employees is a
blind software test engineer, who holds five patents for accessibility in
software design; a deaf Encarta managing editor who is responsible for the
product being close-captioned; and a Development Lead employee who spends much
of his day writing software code using voice recognition software and a
mouth-stick because he is a person with quadriplegia.
SunTrust Banks, Inc. Atlanta,
Georgia
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, SunTrust Banks, Inc. is one of
the nations largest commercial banking organizations, with operations
throughout Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia and the District of
Columbia.
SunTrust Bank has developed a multi-faceted program that
demonstrates a corporate commitment to people with disabilities. The program
includes a Disability Resource Center to increase employees access to
assistive technology, innovative hiring practices, and improved retention and
advancement strategies for people with disabilities. The Resource Center has
oversight responsibility for a vast number of programs and resources, including
a centralized accommodations budget, internship sponsorship program, mentoring
day, and other activities specifically designed to raise awareness of the
business case for hiring and retaining workers with disabilities.
SunTrust has also devoted a full-time position to establishing
partnerships within the SunTrust impression, as well as led the effort to
develop a national volunteer organization to educate employers about hiring and
marketing their job opportunities to people with disabilities. Evidence of
corporate commitment is on the companys Accessing Community Talent (ACT)
intranet site. ACT is designed to encourage managers to attract non-traditional
qualified applicants who are not typically recruited by corporate human
resource departments.
The banks active leadership of Business Leadership Networks
in Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Maryland and the District of Columbia has
resulted in the successful employment and retention of more than 160
individuals with disabilities. Further, SunTrust took an active role in the
creation of the US Business Leadership Network (USBLN), and provided one of its
senior executives to serve as Chairperson to guide the USBLN to non-profit
status, establish by-laws and chapter guidelines, and develop an accessible web
site.
In Virginia, SunTrust has taken the lead in developing an Employer
Tool Kit for work incentives specific to the Medicaid Buy-in. This web-based
tool helps to educate employers on how people with disabilities can increase
their employment without losing valuable Medicaid benefits. This tool is
available not only to SunTrust managers, but also to USBLN members. The bank
has also initiated the Assistive Technology Load Fund Authority in Virginia,
which leverages state dollars with bank funds to provide favorable loan terms
and finance rates for people with disabilities, as well as for employers who
hire and advance people with disabilities.
A national sponsor of National Disability Mentoring Day, the banks
hosted 183 youth with disabilities in 2003, several of whom ultimately became
bank employees. In addition, SunTrust has volunteered to operate a pilot
program expanding ODEPs Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP) into the
private sector.
Individual
Michael John Maslowski Linebacker
Kansas City Chiefs Overland Park, Kansas
In 2000, Michael John Maslowski became a member of the Board of
Directors of the Greater Kansas City Foundation for Citizens with Disabilities.
His commitment to making a difference in the disability arena was personal: As
the uncle of a young man with a disability, Mr. Maslowski believed that
his nephew, along with all young people with disabilities, should have the
opportunity to work and live independently in the community.
At the time he joined the Board, Mr. Maslowski was on the Special
Teams unit of the Kansas City Chiefs. Playing off his position on the team, he
agreed to be featured on a billboard advertisement with the message,
Special Needs have Special Teams. The eye-catching billboard
encouraged hiring people with disabilities, along with a contact number for
further information
Soon after joining the Board, Mr. Maslowski became active in the
Foundations Community Employment Program. Through this program he has
worked with nearly 600 high school juniors and seniors with disabilities,
providing them with encouragement, career assessments, and support that led
them to continue their education or obtain employment after graduation. During
the past 12 months, up to 71 students were assisted in getting jobs or
continuing their education.
Mr. Maslowski has also been instrumental, both personally and
financially, in developing a Job Club for students with
disabilities. With an emphasis on conducting an effective job search, this
program is designed to help students with disabilities gain confidence in their
search and to overcome the stigma that prevents some employers from hiring
people with disabilities.
During football season, Mr. Maslowski hosts and speaks bi-weekly
at Luncheons with the Chiefs. The purpose of these luncheons is to
bring in potential employers (50-75 employers per luncheon) to hire students
participating in the Community Employment Program. Not only have these
luncheons resulted in jobs for the students, but they have also extended the
network of opportunity. For example, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce asked Mr.
Maslowski to work with it to develop job opportunities for people with
disabilities in the Latino community.
Most recently, Mr. Maslowski was instrumental in developing a
video on Transition --School to Work. In the video, he stresses the
value of students completing educational goals and becoming part of the
workforce, following graduation. This video also demonstrates to employers the
benefits of hiring people with disabilities and helps parents to better
understand the transition process. |