Hi everyone,

Hope your summer is going well. Depending on where you are you may be experiencing extreem heat or extreem cold, if you're like me your office is freezing and you really need to step outside to thaw out, ha!

Well on to more serious matters. This month I wanted to share a few websites with you. I recently attended the National APSE conference in Milwaukee, WI where I just soaked up tons of useful information so I thought what a great way to let folks know by sharing on the blog. Hope you find this posting useful.

Over the past several years, numerous websites have been created to address employment opportunities for people with disabilities, also referred to as niche job boards.

The following websites are some of the most useful for matching job seekers with disabilities to employers that are specifically looking to hire people with disabilities.
http://www.earnworks.com/
http://www.jobenable.com/
http://www.jobaccess.com/
http://www.hiredisabilitysolutions.com/
http://www.gettinghired.com/
http://www.disaboomjobs.com/
http://www.workplacediversity.com/
http://www.cosdonline.org/

Here are some other creative ways to search for jobs, network, and develop relationships with your business community.
www.internetinc.com/top-100-job-board-niches - very useful website that lists the top 100 niche job boards. Very useful for discovering unique, industry specific job postings.
http://www.craigslist.com/ – not only good for buying or renting, but also serves as a good job search tool and “job wanted” board.
http://www.volunteermatch.org/ – great site for learning about volunteer opportunities in virtually every industry. Useful for conducting non-paid short term work site samplings.

Internet mapping sites have grown tremendously over the past several years. Now packed with many useful features, job developers can do an entire demographic analysis, as well as initial community and business assessment without leaving the office!
http://earth.google.com/
www.microsoft.com/virtualearth
http://city.ask.com/city

WARNING! The websites listed in this presentation are intended to supplement traditional job development methods and are not recommended to be a substitute for the sometimes lost art of face-to-face networking!

Source:
Dan Baker, Ph.D.
Anthony R. Camuso
The Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-UMDNJ
New Brunswick, NJ

Happy Job Hunting!

Darla Wilkerson

National Consortium on Leadership and Disability for Youth

Hi all,
Gosh time gets away from me and my posting is suffering. This month I wanted to send some information I received from the National Consortium on Leadership and Disability for Youth. Here's some great info on disability history and leadership for youth. Enjoy!

Disability History Timeline: Resource and Discussion Guide

This guide is designed to assist youth with and without disabilities to learn about the rich history of people with disabilities. Although designed primarily for youth and emerging leaders with disabilities, the guide can be used in multiple ways to educate a broader audience as well. Starting shortly before the United States was founded, the guide features examples of the remarkable diversity, creativity, and leadership that have shaped the disability community and American culture. Included is an interactive activity for use with groups to demonstrate societal and statutory events that have contributed to and continue to contribute to the true integration of people with disabilities in society. This guide is a new resource for the growing national movement to have disability history taught in the public schools and community-based organizations.

Nothing About Youth with Disabilities Without Youth with Disabilities: A Guide to Legislative Advocacy

A major focus of NCLD/Y’s work incorporates the celebration of disability history as part of America’s history. As a result NCLD/Y is pleased to be the technical assistance center working with youth-led coalitions around the country, working to have disability history and awareness integrated as part of K-12 public education for all students. To date, five state laws have passed (WV, ID, NC, WA, and FL) with many more to come. This Guide is a result of the work we’ve done in preparing youth with disabilities, in those five states and beyond, to be effective legislative advocates and to create policy change on the local, state, and national level.

Users of this guide will learn;
How to determine a good issue
How to create an effective strategy for change;
How to decide what type of campaigns is most useful; and,
How to build and sustain relationships with people in power, in position to enact the change you want!

Learning to Lead?: A Self-Assessment for Youth, and Are They Learning to Lead?: A Self-Assessment for Staff.

First document, focusing on the needs of youth with disabilities, intends to help an emerging leader look at how they're growing in terms of achieving outcomes identified in the field of youth development and leadership in the five areas of learning, connecting, thriving, working and leading. The second document focuses on giving staff of youth development and leadership programs an opportunity to evaluate how their program is helping youth achieve outcomes in these research-based areas. Together, these two publications are very content rich resources for those of us working to improve youth development and leadership experiences for youth with disabilities in both generic, and disability specific programming.

http://www.ncld-youth.info/publications.htm#disability_history_timeline


Keep the momentum high!
Darla Wilkerson