Page 15 - June JSF report

BENDER LEADERSHIP ACADEMY SITE VISIT REPORT
MAY 16, 2023
Bender Leadership Academy participants:
Joyce Bender, President/CEO of Bender Leadership Academy
Scott Hammerstrom, Manager of Programs and Partnerships
Gerald Homme, Manager of Talent Acquisition & Technology for Bender Consulting Services
JSF participants:
King Jordan, Disability Consultant; Bobby Krause, CEO; Lady Hereford, Program Specialist
Bender Leadership Academy submitted an LOI in 2022 requesting a matching grant of $150,000 over two years. Their program provides a combination of classroom training and work experiences that help youth with disabilities transition into employment. This was followed up by a Zoom meeting in January. The goal of the site visit was to get to know more about this organization, which is housed in an office park in a suburb of Pittsburgh. The organization’s founder, Joyce Bender, is a well-known disability advocate whom King has known for many years.
Joyce began the meeting with a tour of the office suite. Along the walls are numerous awards and photographs chronicling Joyce’s accomplishments. She has worked closely with Tony Coelho, author of the Americans with Disabilities Act. She also has served as a representative for the State Department’s information sharing program, providing disability employment best practices to officials in Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Indonesia and Panama. She also hosts a weekly podcast called Disability Matters. Joyce’s for-profit Bender Consulting Services and the nonprofit Bender Leadership Academy both operate out of the same office, though plans are under way to move Bender Leadership Academy to a separate space.
During introductions, Joyce shared more of her story. She was diagnosed with epilepsy and has profound deafness in one ear. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and previously worked as a secondary education teacher. After she started her consulting business in 1995, she learned that some of the school districts wanted to start a school-to-work program.TheLeadershipAcademycameoutofthateffort. Joycesaidexpectationsaretoolowwhenitcomestostudents with disabilities, and she believes in raising the bar. Bender Leadership Academy serves students in grades 9-12 in both Pennsylvania and Delaware. Among Joyce’s high-profile friends are Valerie Jarrett, who serves as CEO of the Obama Foundation. Working with Valerie, Joyce teaches students with disabilities the importance of voting. She also befriended best-selling fiction author Karin Slaughter. Karin lent her name to Joyce’s “We Will Slaughter Stigma” campaign.
Gerald started as an intern and has remained with the organization ever since. His father, who is blind, holds the distinction of being the first person for whom Joyce found employment. His father later became the first blind person to become certified in Lotus Notes software. Gerald works on the consulting side of the organization but is involved with some of the Leadership Academy’s projects. Among them is the Digital Access @ Work program. He said 90% of the web is inaccessible to people with disabilities. This program teaches young people how to test websites, mobile apps and other platforms for accessibility.
Scott began on the consulting side but now works with the Leadership Academy. One of his biggest projects is Disability Mentoring Day, which has grown to be one of the largest of its kind in the country. On the 3rd Wednesday of October, hundreds of students with disabilities travel to 30 worksites across Pittsburgh. Since 2018, 1,600 youth have been connected with 98 employers through Disability Mentoring Day.
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