Economic Justice

My name is Jennifer Lynn Unrein.  I am 23 years old and I have Williams Syndrome. I like to draw and I am very thankful to have my art business.  I like to work as a team together with my stepmom, Wendi Unrein.  I have been doing this business for more than four years.  I like making a difference in peoples’ lives. 

I always liked to draw pictures on cards for my family and for special people in my life. My mom and I came up with the idea of making artwork together to donate to fundraisers.  We showed it to my transition coordinator at Washburn Rural High School in Topeka, KS, and she showed it to my teachers and they bought my artwork.  We decided to also sell cards and t-shirts, too.  My transition coordinator told us about a special grant that the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities was offering to people like me who wanted to start a business. 

Central to the organization of the Center on Economic Growth is the establishment of an Advisory Panel comprised of leaders who are known experts in their respective fields related to economics, economic development, disability benefits, employment and labor issues, business, employment preparation including vocational rehabilitation, academic resources, job training, financial planning, and barriers to social and economic participation by people with disabilities.

These individuals will serve for an initial one-year period as the core of the Center; their names lending credibility to the Center’s work and their knowledge directing and shaping outcomes by:

• serving as a thought incubator and sounding board for Center staff on modernizing concepts surrounding economic growth for people with disabilities;
• considering the need for research and pilot recommendations required to determine the validity of existing values, government programs, employer practices and their impact on people with disabilities;
• reviewing and guiding the wide dissemination of final recommendations generated during the planning process;
• leading change by suggesting actions on new policy ideas or by promoting already existing concepts that heretofore have not found paths to implementation; and,
• guiding the funding process by making connections with potential funders.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, charges state officials with violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act by confining individuals with disabilities to segregated settings where they have little – if any – interaction with non-disabled peers.  Moreover, they are paid far below the state’s minimum wage of $8.80 for doing rote tasks that offer no training, no skills, and no advancement.

For more than a decade, lead plaintiff Paula Lane, 48, has had the same request: “Find me an outside job.”  Instead, she and 137 other people with disabilities package gloves or put parts into boxes on assembly lines in a noisy and crowded sheltered workshop in Beaverton.  Despite her request for competitive employment and her high performance scores, her individualized service plan has no goals related to employment.  She lives in an apartment with staff support, and would like to go to a country music concert or attend an Upward Bound camp, but her resources are limited.  Over a 12-month period in 2010-11, she made a high of 66 cents an hour.

Happy New Year from all of us at Think Beyond the Label! We know that employees with disabilities bring unique, competitively relevant knowledge and perspectives to the workplace. In 2012, we're more committed than ever to raising awareness that hiring people with disabilities makes good business sense, and to becoming a national connector between businesses looking to hire and job seekers with disabilities looking for work. Whether you're searching for a job, are ready to hire, or just want to learn more about hiring people with disabilities, Think Beyond the Label can help. What are your goals this year? We'd love to know .

In a first-of-its-kind class-action case filed in federal court, the Oregon chapter of the Cerebral Palsy Association and eight individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities claimed that sheltered workshops violate protections against discrimination under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. The suit charges that the workshops unnecessarily segregate the plaintiffs in work environments where they are paid less than minimum wage. The suit also claims that the workshops perpetuate a stereotype about the inability of people with disabilities to function in mainstream work environments.

Project Search Program kicked off at Delta College last March and is continuing to gain momentum, though it is seeking more students to fill open jobs.

“It’s a wonderful program and I am fortunate to work with it, regarding finding students with disabilities jobs,” said Nick Meyers, a program official.

But there are more opportunities than students at this point for the Delta chapter of the national program which aims to match disabled would-be employees with work.

The program started with founder Erin Riehel, director for the Emergency Department at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.