Kevin’s Story

Kevin will be the first to tell you that he is a people person — and it is easy to see why. His sense of humor, high energy, and positivity are hard to miss in National Geographic’s Food Court, where he works both in the front and the back of the house to ensure that the center’s employees are well taken care of during their lunch breaks.

“I love my job. I especially like speaking with our customers and making sure that they have what they need to be happy. My job is to make the customers happy and I take pride in that.”

Kevin is one of several employees with disabilities who were hired this year at Sodexo’s site at the National Geographic’s headquarters in downtown Washington, DC through a partnership between Sodexo and The Arc of the United States. Laura Monto, General Manager of Sodexo’s site at National Geographic, was inspired to create the internship program from the personal experience of being an aunt of a young man with autism. “Knowing how sharp, caring and eager to learn my nephew is, I wanted to provide people with disabilities with the opportunity to learn valuable professional skills and be part of an inclusive team of hardworking and dedicated individuals,” said Monto.

The Arc and Sodexo’s Long-Standing Collaboration on Disability-Inclusive Hiring

The Arc and Sodexo started a similar joint-disability hiring initiative in 2017 at a site in Philadelphia. The site’s General Manager, Dolores Abbonizio, has worked for Sodexo for three decades and has more than 20 years of experience in successfully hiring people with disabilities. More than just creating job opportunities for people with disabilities, Abbonizio believes that creating this program has positively impacted the lives of her employees without disabilities, a positive feeling which is also felt by guests and senior leadership alike. Abbonizio said that her site’s success at hiring and retaining employees with disabilities comes from her entire team’s buy-in to creating an inclusive working and learning environment. “There are certain things that need to happen and systems that need to be in place in order to create a disability-inclusive workplace, but it begins with the whole team’s commitment to making sure that all of our employees feel welcome and are set up to succeed,” said Abbonizio.

Managing a disability-inclusive workplace does have some challenges, but Laura Monto points out that these are no different than managing any other sites she has worked at in the past. “Whether an employee has a disability or not, there is always a learning curve and every individual has a unique work style and personality,” said Monto, “The key to creating a truly inclusive environment is to provide the right supports to your employees to create equity, while ensuring that you treat them all equally and with respect,” Similarly, Dolores Abbonizio said that understanding an individual’s skill set and career goals is critically important to setting them up for success in the workplace. “When you’re working with a new hire, regardless of their abilities, it is important to make sure that their skillsets are matched to the tasks and responsibilities given to them so that they can succeed, create positive momentum and grow,” said Abbonizio.

Bringing Disability-Inclusion to Scale at Sodexo

Back at Sodexo in DC, Kevin is now an integral part of Sodexo’s team at National Geographic and continues to improve his performance and gain autonomy. Aside from what he brings to the table professionally; Kevin’s positive attitude and energy is felt throughout his workplace. Kevin’s success at Sodexo is the result of his hard work, but also of the enabling and inclusive environment that Laura Monto and her team have created. The Arc and Sodexo plan to take the lessons learned from its local successes in Washington, DC and Philadelphia and work with other sites in Sodexo’s national network to bring disability-inclusion to scale at Sodexo. “[Hiring people with disabilities] has always been a positive experience,” said Abbonizio.

The U.S. Supreme Court Olmstead v. L.C. decision 20 years ago established that unjustified isolation is a form of discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The decision acknowledged that segregating individuals with disabilities in institutional settings deprives them of the chance to participate in their communities, interact with people who do not have disabilities and make their own day-to-day choices. The Olmstead decision furthered the promise of the ADA, prohibiting unnecessary segregation and expanding integrated services for people with disabilities.

At this important milestone, let’s join together to acknowledge Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson, two women with diagnoses of mental health conditions and intellectual disabilities, whose determination to return to the community has come to benefit us all. Let’s also celebrate the efforts of people with disabilities and their families and the disability rights community, and the progress we have made together. We must continue to build an array of community-based and integrated options to support choice and independence, and work to end inappropriate and unnecessary institutionalization. Together, we can advance integration, encourage and support full, meaningful inclusion in community life, and economic self-sufficiency.

Google has reached out to The Arc to recruit persons with I/DD to help develop speech recognition technology. If you or someone you know has slurred or hard-to-understand speech, fill out this short form to volunteer and record a set of phrases.

The more speech samples the system hears, the more potential Google has to make progress and apply these tools to better support everyone, no matter how they communicate.

Watch this short video to learn about the exciting work that Google is doing to improve speech recognition technology.

 

Cultivating the next generation of leaders and advocates in the I/DD community is key to the continued success of The Arc and its mission. This is especially true in chapters across the country, where strong community connections can make all the difference in the health and future of a chapter.

Through her junior board, Gena Richardson at The Arc of Alabama is setting an example for what this can look like – and showing how bringing younger members of the community into the movement is both a smart short- AND long-term strategy.

What was your motivation for developing a Junior Board? What is the ultimate goal of the Junior Board?

Junior Boards are known to be an effective and creative way for nonprofit organizations to raise money. It has been my experience they also provide support for the strategic plan, offset some costs related to consulting services, and help build a stronger network.

Tell us how you went about finding the Junior Board members. Where did you find them in the community?

After determining the vision for our Junior Board, I attended community events and networked until I found our core group.  It was important for me to look within established groups known to set high expectations for volunteers, and promote leadership development. The majority of our Junior Board members are involved in Rotary, Montgomery Chamber Ambassador Program, or Junior League. I am actively involved with these groups. The Junior Board members knew me, first and foremost, as a fellow volunteer. Once I approached a potential member and extended an offer, they were ready to join our group.

What activities do you engage the Junior Board in to build involvement and engagement in the mission?

I always encourage everyone to have fun. As we added new members each person was assigned duties based on their area of interest and expertise. This will continue to be our protocol. During the first nine months, we participated in a number of events including, but not limited to, a legislative prayer breakfast, Autism and Disability Friendly Day during a Minor League Baseball game, and our upscale fundraiser. 50% of ticket sales were given back to The Arc of Alabama. 100% of the overhead was covered by Capital City Club (a social and business club). Additionally, 100% of silent auction proceeds came back to us.

Has the Junior Board’s presence strengthened your organization’s work, and how so?

The Arc of Alabama’s profile has increased in our local community. When our Bylaws were initially drafted, we felt as though expanding opportunity for membership beyond the Montgomery metropolitan area gave more opportunities for donations, speaking engagements, and increased impact across the state. We have 30 local chapters in Alabama, the majority in underserved rural counties. Soon after our Junior Board was created, we had our foot in the door to speak with representatives from two counties that did not have a local chapter. During the last year, our Junior Board has obtained donations, provided pro bono services and consultations, and helped with regular volunteer activities. The professional backgrounds of our founding group range from behavioral health and disability services, marketing, legal services, accounting, nonprofit management, public policy, and political consulting. While recruiting Junior Board members, our intent was to connect with go-getters of diverse professional backgrounds.

What do you envision as the future of the Junior Board?

If the past is any indicator of what the future holds, it is incredibly bright for the Junior Board. They will continue to do excellent work. Everyone put in considerable time during the first nine months to make sure the Junior Board had a successful start. It was not uncommon for us to meet during nights and weekends. When a dedicated group of go-getters invests that much time, great things happen.