Pulse- Nov 24 1
Shawnee County Disability Mentoring Day
By Jen Van Dalsem, Program Coordinator
KYEA is excited to relaunch the Shawnee County Disability Mentoring Day (DMD). The KYEA staff, the planning committee, and the participants agree it was a great success!
Disability Mentoring Day is a nationwide event that promotes career development for youth. KYEA led a committee that created Shawnee County Disability Mentoring Day that was on October 23 aimed for young people with disabilities ages 15 to 25 who were seeking employment.
The basic outline of the October 23 Disability Mentoring Day event included:
- 9 to 9:30 – Welcome, opening, and disability job panel
- 9:30 to 11 – Five break-out sessions and resume building
- 11 to 12 – Job fair with 15 hiring businesses and organizations
Forty-two attended the 9 AM Opening. At the 11 AM Job Fair, 230 people were counted, including the employees at the business booths, parents, and caregivers. Many people came and went during the one-hour fair; therefore, the specific number of participants is unknown, but a conservative estimate is over 100.
We had 25 volunteers who helped run the event smoothly.
Of the 23 participants who returned evaluations and the job fair evaluations, all were positive reviews and expressed they want DMD to return next year.
Next year we plan to:
- Add a resource fair
- Add a breakout session for businesses wanting to learn more about inclusive hiring practices
- Increase the number of businesses and organizations participating in the job fair