Over the past month, two of RespectAbility’s major workforce initiatives, the Building Better Futures initiative (BBFI) and our Enabling Economic Independence to Work program (EIW), made great strides forward. The BBFI program, which is made possible by the support of the James Irvine Foundation, is creating employment pipelines in the information technology and job coaching [click to continue...]
It is still very fresh news for all of us at RespectAbility that my friend and colleague Ben Spangenberg passed away, but amidst the grief, it is impossible not to remember Ben’s amazing contributions. Obviously, Ben was best known in our world for his leadership of our National Leadership Fellowship Program. He lived by a [click to continue...]
Every year, the Rehabilitation Services Administration engages in a reallotment process for the Federal fiscal year, both for vocational rehabilitation funding and for the State Supported Employment Services (Supported Employment) program. This means that every year, even though there are tens of thousands of people going without services, unspent funds are moved from their original state [click to continue...]
For me, the musical background of the High Holiday season is my friend Neshama Carlebach gently inviting us to “Return to who you are, return to what you are.” Modern ideas of Teshuvah tend to focus on repentance and on forgiveness. Literally, the Hebrew word Teshuvah means “Return.” Maimonides tells us we have accomplished Teshuvah [click to continue...]
I met Neil and Denise Jacobson 20 years ago when I was in law school. The reform movement of Judaism was gathering together a group of its leaders with disabilities. I was already pretty jazzed to be invited into such a crowd at the ripe age of 22, but I was blown away by this [click to continue...]
March was a particularly a strong month for our policy department, both in terms of teaching and networking. On March 3, Senior Policy Advisor Matan Koch taught more than 50 workforce professionals how to advocate for disability inclusion in their work places using the business case. You can watch that webinar and download the fully [click to continue...]
President Biden released his budget last week, and it has tremendous potential to advance the disability community, but only if disabled people are included and remain vigilant. The budget includes a number of programs which are framed as making the economy more competitive and Americans more secure. The first thing of note is the specific [click to continue...]
As we roll out this new newsletter format, we are excited to have the opportunity to share recent and upcoming trainings. Where possible, we will include a link to registration or to a previous training. Even when it is not possible for you to register or watch a recording, we encourage our readers to carefully [click to continue...]
Last week, as he delivered his State of the Union Address, President Biden called upon Congress to “get seniors and people with disabilities the home care services they need and support the workers who are doing God’s work.” RespectAbility joins with the rest of the disability community in gratitude for this call to leadership, and [click to continue...]
Over the course of the last decade, self-employment and entrepreneurship have become increasingly recognized as an employment strategy for people with disabilities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, people with disabilities are self-employed at a rate nearly twice that of their non-disabled peers. As of the 2019 American Community Survey, more than 700,000 workers [click to continue...]
