One Community Resource Roundup

 

A big thank you to everyone who joined us at our One Community Livestream. It was a pleasure to celebrate inclusive employment with you!

Below is a brief recap on why you should hire people with disabilities, and how to support those employees in the hiring process and within your organization. We’re also sharing contact information for three local organizations who can help you on your journey to inclusive hiring. Last, we’re including a full recording of the Livestream event, as well as our three original One Community videos featuring PHAME students sharing their personal employment stories. If you haven’t watched them yet, we hope you will.

On behalf of everyone at PHAME, thank you for helping to build a future where everyone is included.

Why inclusive hiring practices are good for business:

  • People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) are a largely untapped workforce. Most are unemployed or underemployed, and are less likely to be employed than non-disabled people with the same education level.

  • Studies show that employees with I/DD have a much lower turnover rate than employees without disabilities.

  • The Job Accommodation Network writes that half of all job accommodation requests cost employers nothing—and those that do require spending typically require a one-time investment of just $500.

How to incorporate inclusion into your organization:

  • Foster an inclusive culture by making inclusion part of the company’s strategic mission and having managers share responsibility for the successful implementation of the company’s inclusion policy.

  • Empower direct supervisors to approve accommodation requests, with upper management reviewing any requests that are denied.

  • Create a centralized accommodation fund and source of expertise so that accommodations can be managed quickly, and without impacting the hiring manager’s budget.

  • Post the company’s disability inclusion policy statements online so potential candidates with disabilities can find them.

  • Have managers conduct both stay and exit interviews to discover barriers and create new inclusion strategies.

If you’d like to learn more, we recommend checking out Department of Labor-funded Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN). You can also find more resources on the webpage of The US Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP).

Community Organizations:

Whether you’re a business looking to hire inclusively—or you’re a person with a disability looking for work—we recommend reaching out to a community organization focused on employment for people with disabilities. Here are three orgs we love:

United Cerebral Palsy

www.ucporegon.org
Read their information for employers
Contact: Nicole Vivanco, Employment Solutions Department Manager
nvivanco@ucpaorwa.org
503-888-6585

Community Vision

https://cvision.org/
Read their information for employers
Contact: Dawn Bootz, Employment Connections Director
dbootz@cvision.org
503-292-4964

TVW Inc

https://www.tvwinc.org/
Read their information for employers & fill out their contact form to get in touch

Check Out Our One Community Livestream Recording:

 

In case you missed them, check out our three One Community videos:

PHAME students Jim, Katie, Estin, and Anne-Marie share their employment stories, including how they found work, how employment shapes their lives, and why inclusive employment matters now more than ever.

 

Thanks again for joining us in celebrating inclusive employment, and for being committed to building a world that values all people.

If you would like to support our work, you can make a donation here. Thank you for your support!

 
Anya Roberts