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The New Freedom Initiative Award was established by
the Department of Labor in 2002 to encourage public-private partnerships to
develop and implement comprehensive strategies to enhance the ability of
Americans with disabilities to enter and advance within the 21st Century
workforce. Such strategies include increasing access to assistive technologies
and utilizing innovative training, hiring and retention strategies.
The award will be presented annually to one or more
individuals, non-profit organizations or corporations that have demonstrated
exemplary and innovative efforts to further the employment objectives of
President George W. Bush's New Freedom Initiative.
New Freedom Initiative Award Recipients - 2002
Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and Assistant
Secretary Roy Grizzard presented the Department's first New Freedom Initiative
Awards on November 21, 2002. Three organizations and one individual were
honored for exemplary and innovative public-private partnership efforts in
furthering the employment objectives of the President's New Freedom
Initiative.
Bruce Borden
Middleton, Wisconsin
Bruce Borden, a person with quadriplegia, operates
programs that serve individuals with a wide range of disabilities directed
toward increasing employment opportunities through assistive technology and in
other ways. He has also been influential in establishing affordable housing for
people with disabilities in Wisconsin. In 1991, Mr. Borden established the
Wheelchair Recycling Program, an organization that has collected, repaired, and
distributed more than 150 tons of wheelchairs and other medical equipment to
uninsured individuals throughout Wisconsin and to more than 50 foreign
countries.
In 1996, he founded EBTIDE (Economic Benefit through
Individualized Disabled Employment), a non-profit organization that seeks to
create opportunities that maximize employment and economic advancement of
people with disabilities. In conjunction with EBTIDE, the State of Wisconsin
implemented Pathways to Independence, a Social Security Administration
and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation demonstration project. This project gives
participants simplified, coordinated access to comprehensive assistance in
attaining their employment goals. The local Comprehensive Assistance Networks
also recruit employers to match abilities of the individual with the employers'
requirements. In addition, Pathways to Independence has had success in
removing employment barriers resulting from public policy, including
implementation of a Medicaid Purchase Plan designed to provide access to health
care to people without current coverage who meet the SSI disability test, and
an SSI waiver providing for a gradual reduction of cash assistance on a sliding
scale for SSI recipients who want to work.
Mr. Borden has also been influential in working with
Wisconsin's Department of Workforce Development to conduct a demonstration
project entitled "Making Work Pay" to address financial disincentives to viable
competitive employment for people with disabilities. This program envisions
systems change that redirects existing legislation, programs and public
assistance into a streamlined one-stop portal that creates a self-directed
benefits package for people with disabilities who are able to work and
motivated to earn income above federally designed caps. The program also
provides them with a hold-harmless guarantee regarding eligibility in their
respective public assistance programs should they unexpectedly need to
interrupt their employment for disability-related reasons.
Mr. Borden's achievements include 150 tons of
wheelchairs and other medical equipment being distributed to individuals with
disabilities, 110 families in Wisconsin becoming homeowners and serving more
than 300 enrollees this year alone in the EBTIDE program.
Lift, Inc.
Warren, New Jersey
Since 1975, this small national nonprofit has placed
information technology professionals with significant disabilities at more than
80 of the most prestigious corporations and government agencies in the country.
By means of an intensely individualized, comprehensive and innovative six-step
program of project planning, recruitment, skills development, contract
employment, direct placement, and career-long follow-up, Lift has placed
professionals with quadriplegia, blindness, deafness, and muscular dystrophy in
meaningful long-term careers.
In the project planning phase, Lift works with
management at its corporate clients= companies to identify long-term solid
career opportunities for IT professionals. In the recruitment phase, Lift
recruits individuals with significant disabilities and strong analytical
ability to fill the positions targeted.
In the skills development phase, Lift provides
training at no cost to the trainee in whatever skills are needed for the
position. The training, which is full-time and can last anywhere from zero to
six months, is designed to emulate the actual job. Trainees use the software,
hardware, and accommodations they will use for the work. In addition, they
attend regular meetings with their corporate team managers, and have e-mail and
phone access to both the Lift team and their client teams from day one for
support.
Following successful completion of the training
phase, graduates are hired to work for Lift and assigned full-time corporate
clients for a one-year apprenticeship. Lift continues to manage the process
closely to ensure that each individual is able to work at his or her personal
maximum productivity level. Salaries are paid to match corporate client pay
ranges.
More than 95 percent of the participants who enter
the apprenticeship phase are hired by participating corporate clients at the
conclusion of the apprenticeship, and more than 88 percent are still with the
same employer five years after placement.
The starting annual salary for a participant in the
apprenticeship program has averaged $45,000 over the past three years.
Able-Disabled Advocacy
San Diego, California
Able-Disabled Advocacy is a non-profit organization
residing in San Diego County since 1976, which has provided employment and
training services to people with disabilities. This organization serves youth
and adults with all types of disabilities, including but not limited to
orthopedic, vision, and hearing impairments, psychiatric conditions, and
learning disabilities.
Able-Disabled Advocacy emphasizes the need for and
training in assistive technology to enhance employment opportunities for people
with disabilities. Consequently Able-Disabled Advocacy has been heavily
involved in numerous activities that increase access to assistive and
universally designed technologies. These include converting the state of
California Employment Development Department's (EDD) training manual for
accessing the statewide job bank system to Braille: increasing universal access
at San Diego's One-Stop Career Centers by co-location of Able-Disabled staff,
and providing assistive technology, technical assistance, computer labs,
computer skills training, and customized employment services; assisting
employers and participants in negotiating job modifications and needed
accommodations; developing and circulating an Assistive Technology Survey to
more than 150 San Diego employers; and offering consulting, training, and
technology assistance at no cost.
Able-Disabled Advocacy also has a number of
innovative training programs which utilize computerized labor market
information and job search training, entrepreneurial or e-business training,
and online computer technology training.
Program year goals for 2002 included enrolling 444
participants and placing 318 in jobs. As of July (the deadline for the award
application), Able-Disabled Advocacy had enrolled 464 participants and had
placed 280 people with disabilities.
Vocational Advancement and Social Skills
Training (V.A.S.T.) and Office Skills Training Program
Houston Community
College System
Houston, Texas
These two programs serve individuals with
developmental, learning and physical disabilities functioning at the
kindergarten to 8th grade level. The V.A. S. T. program provides unique
post-secondary educational opportunities focused on in-demand employment
training, hiring and retention strategies. It assists students with making
realistic career choices, building self-esteem and self-confidence by improving
basic skills, participating in campus activities, improving social skills, and
enhancing independent living skills. V.A.S.T. offers 32 courses per semester in
basic academics and life skills, personal/social adjustment, computers (at a
slower pace than in the office skills program), career vocational, independent
living, job readiness, and various enrichment courses (plus work etiquette, job
club, internships, interviewing, resumes, and dress for success).
The Office Skills program offers customized training
to students with disabilities in the office occupations skills. This program
includes a 10-week internship and provides course work in business
communications, filing, general office, procedures, intermediate keyboarding,
and PC fundamentals (Word, Excel, Power-Point).
As part of the overall program, students participate
in special activities. For example, a College Day brings area high school
students to visit the college. The Eagles Club, an organization for students
with disabilities, sponsors an Ability Day in October, with all activities
focused on the abilities of individuals. Students also participate in the
national Disability Mentoring Day, which provides on-the-job mentoring or job
shadowing within the college and at business sites in the community.
The two programs serve approximately 400 students per
year. Approximately 10 percent of the students in V.A.S.T move into standard
college credit courses or certificate programs. About 30 percent of the VAST
students go on to the Office Skills Training Program. The remaining students
either become employed at their particular skill level or are able to live more
independently in the community after completing the program.
Inaugural NFI Awards
Secretary Chao's
Speech
Assistant Secretary
Grizzard's Remarks
Photos from
Awards Ceremony |
