Date: Thursday, April 26th, 2018
Time: 12pm-1:30pm
Location: DeVry University – Long Beach Campus
3800 Kilroy Airport Way
Room 109
Long Beach, CA 90806
Lunch will be provided.
Long Beach, CA, March 28 – Dozens of leaders from across Long Beach gathered to discuss national lessons and local opportunities and to collaborate, to enable more residents with disabilities to get jobs. Meeting for nearly three hours at the Long Beach office of the College Internship Program (CIP), over 30 local providers, self-advocates, and community professionals met to talk strategies, brain storm ideas and make serious commitments to improving outcomes. At the community gathering, staff from RespectAbility revealed the brand-new Tools to Drive Employment resource. This new toolkit summarizes key steps the Long Beach community can take to expand job opportunities for residents with disabilities. This report represents the culmination of months of work made possible by a Knight Foundation grant and the past support of the Long Beach Community Foundation.
Event attendees had the opportunity to learn about one another’s resources, build new professional connections, discuss common challenges and commit to closer cooperation in the future. The gathering included a wide range of community organizations such as AbilityFirst; CA Charter Schools Association; CIP of Long Beach; California State University of Long Beach; Easterseals Work First; Fiesta Educativa; Goodwill SOLAC; Harbor Regional Center; Hillside Enterprises; ICAN: California Abilities Network; Jewish Federation of Greater LA; Khmer Parent Association; Long Beach City College; Long Beach Unified School District; Social Vocational Services; and RespectAbility. The event was generously hosted by the College Internship Program (CIP) of Long Beach. CIP offers a wide range of supports, services and job training for young adults on the Autism spectrum and students with learning and other disabilities.
Back Row (Left to Right): Rick Travis and Claudia Villegas-Avalos from Harbor Regional Center, Angela Rodriguez from Social Vocational Services and Regina Todd from LBUSD. Scott Elliott, Blake Van Steenburg, Mike Karle, Andrew Talley, Jasmine Stidd and Andrew Beisel from ICAN: California Abilities Network. Delbert Whetter, Board Member, RespectAbility. Raoul Munoz and Armida Ochoa from Fiesta Educativa. Vivian Hsa from CCSA. Lori Fleischman from the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. Adam Young and Jacquelyn Jaime, Hillside Enterprises. Sandra McElwee, RespectAbility and Julie Givens, LBUSD. Front Row (Left to Right): Stephenie Kelley ICAN: California Abilities Network, Sharon Lazo-Nakamoto from LBUSD, Kayla Crow from AbilityFirst, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi and Debbie Fink from RespectAbility. Chan Hopson, Khmer Parent Association.
MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
John Stodder, Tower26, (213) 393-42190 stodder.john@gmail.com
Nyle DiMarco
Reality TV Pioneer Jonathan Murray, RespectAbility President Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, Hollywood, Health & Society Director Kate Folb and California Endowment’s Jose Plaza to lead March 20 breakfast discussion about the path to inclusion of people with disabilities.
Date: Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Time: 8:30 A.M. Breakfast was provided.
Location: Glendale, CA
Contact: Lauren Appelbaum, laurena@respectability.org or 202-591-0703
Jonathan Murray
Jonathan Murray of Bunim/Murray hosted this breakfast conversation. Murray has created and executive produced some of the industry’s most diverse, innovative, unscripted, entertainment television programs including Emmy-winning Born This Way (A&E), which documents the lives of diverse young adults with Down Syndrome and their families. Murray serves on the Board of Directors for RespectAbility.
RespectAbility’s focus is on the inclusion of diverse people with disabilities within the entertainment industry. As such, we unveiled a new resource guide for disability inclusion. This toolkit is for entertainment professionals wishing to ensure they are as inclusive of people with disabilities as possible. Email laurena@respectability.org with questions or visit www.respectability.org/hollywood-inclusion to view the toolkit.
Date: July 30, 2018, 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM
Location: Rayburn Building, Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
Date: Thursday, March 22, 2018
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. (Lunch provided)
Location: CIP Long Beach 4510 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 100 Long Beach, CA 90804
Contact: Philip Kahn-Pauli, philipp@respectability.org
RespectAbility, in partnership with the Harbor Regional Center, was proud to offer a unique learning opportunity for local businesses and community providers on Thursday, March 22. This gathering happened thanks to the continuing commitment of the Long Beach Community Foundation to expand opportunities for youth with disabilities.
Finding talented employees can be one of the biggest challenges that any business faces. Likewise, for community service providers, placing job seekers with disabilities into meaningful, competitive employment in the community can take time, money and precious resources. Very often, there can be a significant gap between the world of businesses and the world of nonprofit providers. However, tremendous opportunities and new successes can be found if we bridge that gap.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Congregation Har Shalom: 11510 Falls Rd, Potomac, MD 20854
RespectAbility, in partnership with Congregation Har Shalom, is proud to present the acclaimed film “Spectrum: A Story of the Mind” on Tuesday, February 27 at 7:00 p.m. in a sneak-peek preview event for the 2018 ReelAbilities Film Festival of Northern Virginia, which is organized by the Jewish Community Center of Northern VA.
Jewish Disability Advocacy Day took place on February 6, 2018.
Date: Tuesday, February 6, 2018
Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Location: Capitol Hill: Rayburn House Office Building, Rooms 2043, 2044, & 2045
Los Angeles, Calif., Dec. 14 – On Sunday, January 7, 2018, CSA members across the country are making themselves available to union and non-union performers with disabilities. Professionally trained disabled artists and performers with disabilities actively pursuing careers in the arts are encouraged to attend. Artists will be given an opportunity to perform a prepared scene of their choice in front of a panel of professional casting directors. The open call will offer actors the opportunity to work with casting directors who are looking to expand their knowledge of underrepresented and undiscovered talent in a professional casting environment.
Artists will be given an opportunity to perform a 2-page, prepared scene of their choice in front of a panel of CSA casting directors.
Date: Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Time: 8:30 A.M. Breakfast will be provided.
Location: Bunim/Murray, 1015 Grandview Ave., Glendale CA
Contact: Lauren Appelbaum, laurena@respectability.org or 202-591-0703
Jonathan Murray
Jonathan Murray of Bunim/Murray hosted this breakfast. Murray has created and executive produced some of the industry’s most diverse, innovative, unscripted, entertainment television programs including Emmy-winning Born This Way (A&E), which documents the lives of diverse young adults with Down Syndrome and their families. Murray serves on the Board of Directors for RespectAbility.
RespectAbility’s focus is on the inclusion of diverse people with disabilities within the entertainment industry. However, it is our view that everyone who works on any aspect of diversity in Hollywood should help everyone else as a rising tide lifts all ships. Television and films that represent ALL of us are simply better. During this event, we explored ways we can work together to pitch diversity in Hollywood to ensure a more inclusive medium. We discussed messages and strategies to fight stigma and advance opportunities for all underrepresented people in the industry.
