Page 23 - 2022 Feb Report

Resilience
Disability Convening report (4)
Discussion of all the presentations followed Gloria and there was widespread agreement that there needs to be more attention to the employer side. Someone posed the question, how do we get more Sodexos? How do we work to educate employers that it is in their best interests to employ people with disabilities. There is information about the minimal cost of accommodations for people with disabilities and the significant costs incurred when making new hires but this information isn’t getting to the people who make the hiring decisions. The Foundation focuses on helping people with disabilities obtain education and employment. Employment will only become easier when having a diverse workforce becomes normalized.
V. RECOMMENDATIONS
1. As was discussed following the 2019 Convening, the Foundation should continue to work with our current theory of change and grant making strategy. While there was no direct discussion of the theory of change during this convening, all the panelists had reviewed it and I believe that it is still the right framework for us to be good grant makers.
2. The Foundation should continue to focus on employment. The theme of this convening was employment of people with disabilities, so this recommendation is more or less a given.
3. The Foundation needs to focus more on the employer side of the issues present in our grant making.
4. Encourage more employers to consider disability as one part of diversity. 5. Encourage better relationships between disability and career services.
6. Explore the support of PACKS at UNF or another university.
VI. FINAL THOUGHTS
Following the discussion among the panelists and the Foundation directors, the directors stayed to discuss the PACKS Program that Kris Webb had described. The directors agreed that the model as she presented it was very impressive and there was real potential for launching it. Not only would PACKS be good for a university and its students, but it would be good for the Foundation because
we could learn from it. The outcome of this discussion was that Bobby was directed to speak with Kris about implementing and overseeing the PACKS model at UNF or at another institution and report back to the Grant Program Committee in March.
Respectfully submitted this 28th day of January, 2022. I. King Jordan
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