Advancing opportunities means that we take down barriers to education, employment, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement and create pipelines to enable disabled individuals to lead the lives of their choosing. In 2022, we advanced opportunities across our four pillars: Policy and Workforce Development, Entertainment and News Media, Faith Inclusion and Belonging, and Leadership Development.
Our Policy team kicked off two major new initiatives to build know-how and remove barriers to employment. Our Entertainment and News Media team deepened its partnerships and secured employment opportunities for Lab alumni. Our Faith Inclusion team expanded beyond the Jewish community to reach new faith and spiritual communities in our inclusion work. And our Leadership team placed Apprentices in externships and mentored an Apprentice of their own. Below, we’ve captured some of these highlights.
In 2022, our team…
- Developed a model Medicaid buy-in plan in partnership with the United Spinal Association to allow disabled employees to maintain their personal care or other medical benefits while also working, saving states money
- Built partnerships with experts in vocational rehabilitation and entrepreneurship at state agencies and the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation (CSAVR) to create best practices
- Deepened our partnership with Nielsen Research, including a new study on closing the inclusion gap for people with disabilities in media representation and a new initiative to track on-screen disability representation as part of its inclusion data
- Worked with the California Film Commission to place alumni in paid internships, including two to work in post-production for an Amazon Studios project
- Successfully transitioned the former Jewish Inclusion department to the Faith Inclusion and Belonging department to serve as a convener, collaborator, and content developer in multi-faith disability inclusion
- Produced several new resources to help faith communities be more inclusive, including our Inclusive Congregations Guide and the Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month (JDAIM) 2023 program guide
- Added partnerships with the Institute on Theology and Disability and American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Religion and Spirituality Interest Network
We placed Entertainment Lab alumni in a variety of productions, including on the crew of the Apple TV+ series “Best Foot Forward.”
