Scott Hammerstrom: BLA's Programs and Services

Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender. All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guest, and callers. Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

Hey, what is that saying that you have to hear that one ad over and over and over and over? When you're watching, I think Netflix, where all those millions of people come on and say, the more you know. Okay, the more you know, I am still living with COVID but much better than I was last week. Oh, last week with that superstar Ty Herndon. Of course, wouldn't it be when I have a country star that's so famous? But the good news is he also had COVID. Well, I mean, that's not good for him that he had COVID. Just saying. He also had COVID. But I'm getting better. I'm on the mend. That's what matters. But, you know, I'd never miss this show. Forget that, because I love all my listeners. I got to tell you, I can't believe it. I'll go somewhere. People will say, oh, I listen to your show. It's really great. Do you know how much that means to me that you listen to this show? It's because of you. That we're able to keep spreading the news about quality of life and employment and what's happening in the news and disability rights for people with disabilities. It's because of you. You are all champions as far as I'm concerned. And shout out to my friends around the world. Oh my goodness, I can never believe how many countries listen to this show, and new countries listening to the show, with 17 listeners from China to Saudi Arabia. What about that? And as I always say, even if there's only one listener, one in that country, that matters, because you can spread the news to others so they listen to the show. You know, that's something I'm going to work on. I want to work with the State Department to get this show out everywhere because people with disabilities around the world, they need encouragement. They need to know they matter. So I'm going to work on that. Which reminds me of my close friend who thinks of everything. So I know, Richard Roberts, you'll have an idea about this, but my friend Richard Roberts in Brazil with the State Department. Just love him so much. Carla, you're lucky to have him there. Wait till you see when I see him in Brazil, how thrilled I will be. I love him. And Gangyang Cho in South Korea, and Cheryl Harris at the U.S. State Department, and Venyamin in Kazakhstan, and all the other people from all the other countries. Special shout out to you, Yoshiko Dart, and thank you to my sponsor, Highmark. So you know what, I'm gonna get right into it so that I'm not coughing the entire time. We have today two of my favorite people, Scott Hammerstrom and Leanne Thomas. And we're going to be talking about the Bender Leadership Academy. Scott, starting with you, why don't you tell our listeners what you do and how this all got started?

Oh, absolutely. And good afternoon, Joyce, and I'm so glad that you are feeling better and recovering from COVID Well, Joyce, I have been working with you since about 16 years now. And as you know, I always had a passion to help young people with disabilities. And one of the things I started doing when I first worked with you is helping coordinate Disability Mentoring Day. And, and then we kept adding and adding some programs for, for youth with disabilities. And then in 2018, we decided to make a nonprofit organization called Bender Leadership Academy. So I am, I started taking over about in 2020, and I am the Manager of Programs and Partnerships for, for Bender Leadership Academy. So I am responsible for all the, the programs, any, all the partnerships, fundraising, special events, and development, and everything in between to make sure that, that the nonprofit is running smoothly, and managing the, our board of directors, and also the all of our committees. And what Bender Leadership Academy is— our goal is to increase the long-term competitive employment for youth with disabilities. Uh, we deliver competency-building programs that enable students with disabilities to engage in educational empowerment work opportunities. We celebrate their successes, and we set and achieve career journey goals for our students. But I know we've been doing this officially since 2018, but we've been doing, like I said, programs for helping young people for over 20 years with you and Leanne.

Yes, that's true, Scott. We just love you. And Scott's right, he told me from when I first hired him— how many years ago, Scott?

Um, about 16 years.

16 years ago that his passion, you know, was working with young people. And now here he is. I'm going to tell you, he is awesome. Scott Hammerstrom is awesome. And he loves, loves these students. See, that's, that's really what— that's where the rubber meets the road, having passion for these young people. But it is amazing, really an amazing story how we got started. And I have another amazing person that I think the world of, my Chief of Staff, Lee Ann Thomas, with us. But what many of you may not know is how far back our relationship goes and how Lee Ann in history will be remembered as the person that really got the Bender Leadership Academy in place. How about that? So, Leanne, welcome to the show.

Thanks, Joyce. I appreciate you having me on, but I have to start out by saying how awesome it is that this is the 20th anniversary of your show.

Oh yes, it is. Thank you so much, Leanne. Hard to believe, but I am so Proud to say this is the 20th anniversary. Thank, thank you. Hey, Leanne, let us start with how you know me. People may think you know me because of working for me— what is it, 10 years now?

Yeah, so I am lucky enough to be Joyce Bender's Chief of Staff, and I have now been with Bender for 10 years. Before that, I actually worked for Computer Sciences Corporation.. And that's how I met Joyce. After I retired, Joyce said, come work for us. And I'm thrilled to be a part of the team. But when I was working at CSC, this goes back to 1998. We were a customer of Bender's. I'm located in Delaware. I wanted to hire people with disabilities. So we reached out to Joyce Bender and the team to start that initiative and started in Delaware and then worked across the US. To Canada in placing people with disabilities. It was a great, a great partnership and still continues to be. But when I was at CSC, I was on an advisory team, the Department of Education here in Delaware, and it was leaders, the Department of Education, with schools, companies, all together trying to figure out what can we do to help students with disabilities get hired. So the big discussion about that. And one of the things they said, "I don't understand why they're not getting hired." And I said, "Because you're not teaching them what I call soft skills. You're not teaching them how to interview, how to be prepared for an interview, how they should dress, public speaking, even little things like making sure that your message on your phone is appropriate when a company calls to want to talk to you about a job." So in thinking about that, you should not come up with an issue without coming up with how could you fix. So when I was there, I said, you know what, I happen to know somebody I think would be awesome in doing this and creating a program to help students with disabilities. Go talk to the person and see if she would be interested. That person was Joyce Bender. So I talked to Joyce about it, and she said, yeah, let us talk about it. So we got the school Joyce Bender and myself, CSC would be the sponsor of the program here in Delaware where we would bring in students 4 times to teach them how to be prepared for work. And at the last class, they would actually have a graduation. And that's how it all started, with that one conversation. So it's been over 20 years when that— when this program started, and it's grown and developed. And we still have it here, and I'm proud to say that Joyce and Scott will both be here in Delaware next month for the Delaware Bender Leadership Academy graduation. The students are so thrilled to have Joyce come in personally to be there for it.

I love these students, Leigh Ann. I love— from when I met them, I love them. Leigh Ann knows I said, okay, I'll do this for 1 year. And here I am all these years later, as Leanne said, since 1998, or when we started this. I went with Mary, we went to Delaware, we did all of these classes, and people would always ask me, why are you doing these on a volunteer basis? I said, because It means so much to me. You know, it means so much to me. But to think you are helping these students who have been bullied, the bar lowered, not encouraged. Oh, it is so awesome to see what happens. See, we start with— when I go to Delaware, before any one student meets me, and we still do this in the classes, You have to give a speech, what it takes to be a good employee. I mean, your first class, you already have that assignment, and you have to give a speech at each of the classes. So there's a class, the first class on initiative, then there's the in-between month with homework, you know, there's a class on bullying, and there's in-between class, there's class on job preparation, which is so awesome. Uh, and then there's an in-between class and then the graduation. And when these students graduate, I'm not kidding, you would think when they get this certificate that they graduated from CMU. They invite their family, they're so thrilled, and everything is about raising the bar encouragement, leadership, dealing with bullying, and getting a job. It's all about getting a job. And as Leigh Ann said, we started in Delaware with CSC, and we still are in Delaware now with the school district, the Network School District. And we started a class at Highmark with Pittsburgh Public Schools, and we started one at Calgon Carbon. One at Auburn with Beaver Area Schools and one at Covestro with Fox Chapel School District. And we had this going so much that we finally said, okay, look, this has to be a not-for-profit so we can really help even more children. And that's how the Bender Leadership Academy came to be. But we, because of COVID had to do so many virtual that we actually had to add classes. And Scott, how many classes do we have?

Um, we have around 11 different classes with student leaders and advanced student leaders each month. So instead of doing 4 classes in person, you know, with COVID we made them virtual, made them shorter. So we do 7 classes. We do one a month, and, but we have 7 different areas. And we have students from all over Pennsylvania now who participate because a lot of it is virtual. So the more students will be able— were able to participate.

And Scott, these classes, what are some of the things that you— or is it just work preparation? I know there's a lot of things.

For example, don't you have the Jarratt Community Engagement We do have the J-Rock community engagement, but one of the things I want to say is, is confidence. You know, if you sit in on class 1 and go all the way to class 7 with graduation and to see these students grow, each class they have to speak in front of us and prepare speeches, and, and you could see them getting better and better, and they're confident growing with all the things that they're learning in this class. And you're right, so we have instituted in our curriculum the Jarrett Community Engagement. So we want our students to be leaders in the community, especially when they graduate, and know the importance of voting and how to register to vote and make sure that your polling places are accessible and to be a self-advocate for themselves and to stick up for themselves. And we are very fortunate to partner with Valerie Jarrett, who used to be in President Obama's administration. And with your friendship with her, we partnered with them and with her and instituted this about 2 years ago into all of our programs. And it has been wonderful. So I know tomorrow we have our advanced student leaders class. And that's one of the things that we'll be talking about is the voting process. So very looking forward to the Morris class.

And Scott, I don't know if you saw this, but last Sunday I think it was in the Post-Gazette, the story about how people with disabilities have a hard time getting to vote. And what it was about is that many voting polls still are not accessible, which is so amazing. So something we're going to be doing, and I know you work with Rev Up, is making sure that voting booths are accessible for our students that can vote.

Yeah, yeah, we just had one of our Rev Up Pennsylvania coalition meetings this morning And that was one of the things that we're talking about because we have an election here in Pennsylvania on May 16th. And one, there are still a lot of places within Pennsylvania that are not accessible for people, for able them to vote. And number two, we're always looking for poll workers. There's a big shortage of poll workers, especially for people who speak multiple languages or Someone who has a disability as well that understands, that could help or assist voters.

Wow. Well, that's, that is a good opportunity for people with disabilities that they didn't have before. Absolutely. And I want to go back to something you said, Leigh Ann. Scott was talking about how the students change. When we have taught those classes, in Delaware. Isn't it amazing how they change from when they first meet me to when they graduate?

Oh, it is amazing how they learn and grow through that class. When they come to the first class, as Joyce mentioned, they actually have to give a speech, and you can just see how they're very nervous. They don't want to volunteer to be the first person. You know, to give their speech. But nobody ever— none of the students ever complain. I have to say that, Joyce. And anything you've asked them to do for homework or as part of the class, they know what by having somebody such as Joyce Bender there teaching them. So, in the first class, they are very, very nervous. But by the end, oh my goodness, you know, when it is time to give speeches, questions, their hands are up right away. They love having that chance because now that the group as a whole has grown. And now they have a whole network of people that have gone through the class that they can reach out to. So they have their own little network that have been through the same, you know, class, learned together. And it's just amazing that when we've had graduations and have parents there, they'll go, "Is that really my child? I can't believe that they would get up and speak. I can't believe how much they've learned." And when they come home from the class, They're just telling me how much, you know, what was taught in the class, what they learned, what Miss Bender said. So it's just amazing from the very beginning to graduation of how much they've learned and grown.

Yes, and I know you've heard me talk about this so many times, but Ruth was one of those students, and she, as Leanne said, everyone's required, no pity, to give this speech, and Ruth goes up And oh my goodness, she looked like she was going to pass out. She was so nervous, but she made it. But then the next class, she was a little bit better. And I spoke up and I said, hey Ruth, what are you going to do? Take my place? You're going to take my spot here? Well, by the last class, guess what she's telling everyone? Hey, if you need someone to help you, I can help you out. I'll never forget when I looked out the window after her graduation speech and she had this huge smile on her face. I'll never forget that. And that's, that's what makes all of this worthwhile. Hey, Scott, before I forget, I wanted you to mention we have a walk coming up, right?

We do have a walk coming up.. It's called the Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community. And this is the first year that Bender Leadership Academy is going to be participating. There's a whole bunch of nonprofit organizations will get together and Highmark does all the logistics and organizes it. And it's going to be on Saturday, May 13th in the morning down in Pittsburgh by the North Shore near Stage AE. So we're looking for walkers, we're looking for people who would be interested in donating to Bender Leadership Academy. And all you have to do is go to www.walkforahealthycommunity.org, go to Pittsburgh, because they have locations throughout Pennsylvania, and then find all the organizations that are there. Look for Bender Leadership Academy. Please sign up for a team or walk individually or just donate. We're trying to make a big impact for, um, for Bender Leadership Academy with this walk this year.

Yeah, please donate. Saturday, May 13th, Saturday, May 13th, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And, uh, I know our company is going to be making a contribution. I hope all of you make a contribution. How do they do that, Scott? How do you make a contribution?

Yeah, if they go to the walk, you can, uh, donate or sign up for the walk, and that is walkforahealthycommunity.org. Or if you want to just donate to Bender Leadership Academy, you can just go to benderleadership.org and donate there. But we really want people to sign up and for the walk, and if you donate over $30, I know you get a t-shirt. So more people the merrier. So please sign up. Get a team together. Joyce Bender Leadership Academy.

Yes, don't forget, that's very important. Make sure you do that. And Leanne, I know they have a lot of community events in Delaware, but don't you think, Leanne, because I know, wow, how what you used to do with United Way, don't you think that also builds camaraderie at companies?

Oh, it does. We've talked about it before when I worked for CSC. I worked for DuPont. And when you have an event like that, everybody rallies together to help that initiative and help that cause. Feel a part of it. You know, we would go out and, you know, clean areas up or, you know, do mentoring for students. But it all— you always felt great and had the feeling that you were making a difference in the community.

Yeah. And, and it is. It's good. It's good to give back. It's good to give back. And surely Highmark has done a lot for us. Not only are they the sponsor of this show, it is Deb Rice Johnson at Highmark that gave us $100,000 to get started, to get the Academy started. And Highmark has been a great contributor ever since then. They never stopped, never stopped, and we think so highly of them. So, Scott, we got a lot of things going on there, but one of my favorites, as you know, I love being on the board of directors of the CLO here in Pittsburgh with all these great musicals, and we've been here for so long and we're so known nationally, but we got a special thing going on with them. Do you want to talk about that?

Yeah, absolutely, Joyce Bender. So we partnered up— Bender Leadership Academy partnered up with the Pittsburgh CLO to create what's called an Artcessibility program. And Artcessibility will have something for everyone, whether you love to sing and act, or if you're just looking for a way to try something new. Students would have loads of fun singing and pretending to be different characters, all of which helps build your confidence enhance your skills to, to speak in front of others. So we just had our first classes finished up. We had 4 or 5 Saturdays in March. It was virtual, and we had a bunch of students from Bender Leadership Academy who attended, and the CLO had a couple teachers who ran the classes. It was a wonderful partnership, and I know the students got a lot out of it. 'Cause we want our students not only to be ready for the world of work and be prepared, we want them to be well-rounded students and, and to offer the arts. 'Cause a lot of times the schools take away arts programs or music programs, so we wanted to incorporate that into some of our curriculum as well.

Yeah, and I will say that I believe that builds confidence. I really do. I believe that builds confidence, and I am a big believer in the arts, so. I support in Pittsburgh the ballet, the symphony, and of course I'm on the board of the CLO. But arts is so important to our society and certainly to these students. Well, here we are on the half hour, uh, and it is time for our news break with my favorite, Perry Jude Radesik, CEO of Disability Rights PA, and also involved with Rev Up. Hey, Perry, welcome to the show.

Hey, Joyce.

Yeah, I love Rev Up.

I, I love Gerald and Scott's leadership. It was great to work with both of them earlier this morning. They do a great job.

Thank you. It's so, so important. It's so important. So what news do you have for us today, Perry?

Well, uh, This is an announcement from the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Uh, the President's Committee is going to hold a virtual meeting, uh, just around the corner. It's on Monday, May 1st, uh, from 12 to 5 PM. Now the committee's going to meet and discuss, uh, home and community-based services, which is really important. And Joyce, just to lead into next week, I know President Biden was making an announcement at 2 o'clock today, uh, to improve long-term care and child care services. And so we'll cover that next week on Disability Matters. But the committee is going to discuss home and community-based services. The committee had determined that the members would focus their first report to President Biden on home and community-based services. It's so critical that we, we have a, a strong home and community-based services program in our country. Uh, so in addition to that, members are also gonna talk about direct support professionals, competitive integrated employment, and federal support programs. Now, stakeholder input is, is always encouraged for this meeting, and there's a form that they want us to use, uh, so that we can give them our feedback. If you go to disabilityrights.gov, PA.org right now, click on today's advocacy matters segment. We have a link to the public feedback form for the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. Now, this committee is really important. It dates back to Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966. It serves as a federal advisory board to the president and the Secretary of Health and Human Services on issues relating to persons with intellectual Disabilities. Now, President Biden re-established the committee. When he did, he appointed a Pennsylvanian to that committee, Sean A. Leong, who is the only Pennsylvania member, and he is a self-advocate and student at Temple University.

Oh, that is awesome.

Advocacy matters. It is, and Sean's terrific. We want people to attend the meeting. We want the public to submit comments to the committee. So again, if you want to attend the virtual meeting, you have to register, and if you want to submit public comment, you gotta go through the link that we provide. So go to disabilityrightsPA.org, find the link to register and submit your public comment. And again, Joyce, next week we'll talk about what the president issued in terms of his executive order today at 2 o'clock.

Oh, thank you. I can't wait. Thank you for keeping us up to date. And one more time, where do they go to find out about this, Perry?

Joyce Bender, go to disabilityrightsPA.org, click on today's Advocacy Matters segment. It's on our home page, and you can get all the information.

And you see all these great things Perry's doing, so when you go there, make a contribution. Hey Perry, thank you so much for calling in today.

Thanks Joyce, it's great to hear Scott on the radio.

How about that, Scott? You're famous. You are famous. So is Leanne. Okay, wow. I'm talking about my favorite subject, which is the, uh, Bender Leadership Academy that Scott You have that Digital Access at Work program. Could you talk about that?

Yeah, absolutely. So we actually have been partnering up with a company called AudioEye, and we are teaching our students with disabilities digital accessibility. So we are having a class in the summer. And again, we're going to teach them about— I think Joyce Bender said over 95% of all websites are not accessible.

Um, yes, it is.

There's a lot of documents that are accessible. Yep. So we're teaching our students the basics of accessibility because that is a great career, especially in the gig economy. And then our students who graduate from Digital Access at Work class, they can go on and get additional training through AudioEye, and then with its paid training, and they can do projects while they're in school to make sure the documents or websites are accessible. So it's a great paying opportunity, and that our students with disabilities have an opportunity to do. And again, we'll be having a class coming up this summer.

And, Leanne, how important do you think that is to get that experience to prepare you for work?

It's invaluable experience to help you, you know, get an understanding of what is expected in the work. And I think it gives the students confidence. To have that and then, and then get that job, be working there. Anything that we can do to help the students be prepared, and this is a, this is a great opportunity, and I think, Scott, you're doing a great job with it, and the students are really learning a lot. So, anything that we can do to be better prepared and have the skills to start, I think, is awesome.

Well, I agree with you, Leanne. To have, you know, to have that experience that, you know, prepares you for the world of work and be able to work with this company Audio is critical. And may I say, great to have on your resume. And Scott, I forgot to ask you this, but if any company, any schools in Pittsburgh, like if someone gives this show to them, a teacher, transitional coordinator, and they're interested in being part of the Academy? What do they do?

Easiest way to do is probably just contact me. So you could call my phone number. My work number is 412-446-4448, or email me at shammerbrum@benderleadership.org. And there is also more information on our website, which is benderleadership.org. You can go on there and contact, contact us from there as well.

Well, something that I just mentioned that I had Ty Herndon on the radio show, and that was to talk about Not Ashamed. Let's start with the Mary Brocker Mental Health Initiative. Do you want to tell everyone about that, Scott?

Yeah, absolutely. So we started the, the Mary Barker Mental Health Initiative, I think in 2020, and we broke that down into sort of like 3 components. We have a mental fitness training, which become empowered to talk about mental health, engage in healthy mind habits that build skills and self-compassion and coping and resiliency. We want students to learn to identify and understand emotions, what they tell us, and explore where thoughts come from and how to process them in a healthy way. We also are talking about mental health advocacy. So understanding what it means to be an advocate, learn about current civil rights issues for people with mental health disabilities, and hear presentations from community partners about mental health advocacy, and explore actions that youth advocates can take to bring about change that address stigma of mental health. So this mental health, mental fitness training and mental health advocacy, we are adding them into all of our curriculum because it is so vital, especially since 2020 with COVID just the isolation for students. Mental health with students has just skyrocketed. And the, Third part of our campaign, we call it the Not Ashamed Campaign. And what we're trying to do is reduce stigma around mental health disabilities. We're empowering youth with mental health disabilities to take pride in who they are and create a community of allies dedicated to ending the myths around mental health disability and celebrate the intersectionality of lived experience and mental health disability. Mary Brooker, who we love, she mentioned, "We must create a world where mental fitness conversations are as commonplace as those about nutrition and exercise. It is only by sharing that message that both mental health and physical fitness are part of the quality of life where we can break down stigma." And as I mentioned, 1 in 4 adults have a mental health disability. 7 out of 10 teens report mental health struggles. And suicide is the second leading cause of death in young people the ages of 15 and 24. So we've created this campaign and we're asking people to create a 15 to 20-second video just on your cell phone and say, "Hi, I'm Scott Hammerstrom and I have a mental health disability and I am not ashamed." or if you're just an ally, if you know somebody who has a mental health disability, to support them, to make that video, send it into Bender Leadership Academy. We're trying to get it out on social media and spread the word and try to end the stigma for people who have a mental health disability.

Yeah, and Mary, Mary died August 10, 2021. It is the worst thing that ever happened to me. Ever. And, uh, Mary was the president of Bender, but she was my extremely close friend for 22 years, traveled with me around the world, uh, just a total beacon of light. There will never be another Mary. I used to tell Mary that Pink wrote that song for her, Get the Party Started, because Mary was get the party started. She, and she was, she loved, you know, she lived with clinical depression 40 years. She loved high school students living with mental health disabilities, and she was determined to help them. That's why we started the Mary Brocker Mental Health Initiative. Once again, P&C and Highmark both donated money without being asked. When Mary passed away and we started this Mary Brooker Mental Health Initiative. And that Not a Shame campaign, and I gotta tell you, it goes back to Eve Hill, the chair of the board of Bazelon Center on Mental Health Law, and also a really national disability rights leader for people living with mental health disabilities. And I called her, I said, I want to do something. What do you think is the biggest thing I could do? She said, get out of the shadows, not be ashamed you have a mental health disability. And I said, that's it, hashtag not ashamed, you know. And if you go— you won't believe it— if you go to YouTube and you put in Bender Leadership Academy Not Ashamed, how many videos come up? And you will see people like Valerie Jarrett and Brett Hundley. You'll see an NFL star, and you'll see congresspeople, and you'll see TV personalities, and you'll see Ty Herndon, who I was just talking about, uh, and you'll see advocates, disability rights advocates, and high school students living with mental health disabilities. It is just awesome. Make sure, go to benderleadership.org and make a short video with your cell phone today to support #NotAshamed. I'll be looking for those from when this radio show was on. So you better get out there, do that little short video, and put it out there. Today. Don't forget. And we also have a big initiative called Slaughter Stigma, named after my good friend Karen Slaughter, who— wow, if you didn't know who she was, I'll bet you do now with that Will Trent TV show, because Karen— it's based on the book she wrote about Will Trent. But she is allowing us to use her name Slaughter Stigma to really work to get rid of stigma. And once again, for high school students living with mental health disabilities, it's, you know, we lose kids. So please go to vendorleadership.org, make a donation to the Mary Brocker Mental Health Initiative. And, uh, Leanne, I know you know when Mary was at those classes how she would befriend different students and go off and talk to them in Delaware.

Yeah, Mary, the students just loved Mary so much, um, and they felt that they could share with her. So you would— they would come into the class and they would go in and search out Mary just to talk to her and share information. And they, uh, they just Joyce, I have to say, all the students love the program and having someone care such as yourself and Mary care about them and helping to make them be successful. Because I know even now, Joyce, a lot of the students do still keep in touch with you. Yeah, they do. That's how much they appreciate the opportunity because you and Mary listen to them. They do not always have that from adults who will truly listen to them and that they can share things with.

Yeah, I mean, that is so true. And, Scott, before we take our next call, we did not get to talk about the mentoring program yet.

No, we did not. And I am so excited about this, Joyce Bender Leadership Academy. Is growing. And so we started the Bender Mentoring Initiative. And so what happened is we partnered up with Partners for Youth with Disabilities, who received a grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to create, again, the Bender Mentoring Initiative. Because I think it's 65 to 70% of juvenile justice involved youth have a disability, which is 3 times higher than the rate of youth without disabilities. So fueled by the bullying and lowered expectations from adults and the systematic barriers, many youth with disabilities are left feeling inadequate, isolated, with fewer opportunities to connect to the community than non-disabled youth. And there's research that shows there's a correlation between failure in school and unemployment, and law-violating behavior. And youth with disabilities who fail to graduate are almost 6 times more likely to be involved in the juvenile justice system and often have higher levels of disciplinary actions within the school. So with this Bender Mentoring Initiative, our goal is to improve the outcomes for at-risk youth in mentoring programs by providing supported mentoring opportunities for youth with disabilities, for at-risk juvenile delinquents, in this expanded or this high-quality evidence-based mentoring program. So what we are doing is we are trying to increase or expand the reach to the number of high-risk youth receiving mentoring services and create a mentor-mentee program. So we want We're looking for mentors to mentor these youth with disabilities between 11 and 17 years of age to guide them, to help them. We're asking for somebody to just donate their time, like 4 to 6 hours a month for 1 year to help with these youth with disabilities to get them back on track, to help them make sure they're staying in school. And it could be just friendship and going to a ball game or just talking to them on the phone or, you know, just making sure they have somebody to mentor them, to be an adult to help them, to guide them. So if anybody out there is looking to mentor some youth with disabilities in Pennsylvania, please contact us. And, you know, if there's anybody— teachers or educators out there who know of youth with disabilities who may need to be mentored, please let us know. It's a brand new initiative that we're just starting and getting off the ground this year.

Yeah, okay, so where do they go, Scott?

They can go to our website vendorleadership.org or they can just email me at shammerstrom@vendorleadership.org.

Benderleadership.org. Make sure you do and tell someone, tell someone about it. Okay, well, we have a caller on the line, another one of my favorite Bender people. Gerald, are you on the line?

I am. Hello, Joyce, how are you?

I'm good, I'm good. How about you, Gerald?

Oh, I'm wonderful, especially after hearing about a reminder of all the great things that are going on at the Bender Leadership Academy right now.

Yeah, isn't it awesome? It is really awesome.

Really is.

So what news do you have for us today, Gerald?

Well, thanks as always for getting me call in with the, the Bender Consulting update here at Bender Consulting Services. We're real excited because next Wednesday, April is going to be our Bender Virtual Career Fair. Once again, that's next Wednesday, and we are so excited because we have over 40 companies and federal agencies, other employers registered representing across the nation job opportunities for people with disabilities. We're going to have over 1,000 thousand applicants with disabilities signing up looking for work. So, it's going to be a really great opportunity for both companies and for employee— and for potential employees, for candidates with disabilities looking for work. So, I wanted to give a quick shout-out about that. If you're interested in registering as a company, you can still do that, or as a candidate. Candidates register for free. You can visit our website to learn more at benderconsult.com. Just click on careers and virtual career fair to get the information and to register for the event.

And, Leanne, you know how great this is because don't you get a lot of companies that want to participate Oh, yes.

Actually, I think, as Gerald said, we're over 40 companies. They call. I send out emails to remind them of the upcoming fairs. Many of them actually will reach out and say, "Anne, what's the dates for the new year?" So, they're very excited because they get the opportunity to meet a wide range of candidates with disabilities. Because it's virtual, without the travel, they can get to more candidates that way or job seekers. So, they're very excited to have that chance to talk to them and really look forward to the fair to come up each year.

Yes, we are. Great way, great way to get a job. Gerald, how does that work for people who are deaf?

Well, the whole career fair is just done through text chat. So, you know, there's— you don't have to worry about an interpreter or anything. There's not really— as much of a voice component to this. It's just kind of like the old days of AOL chat rooms, if anyone knows what I'm talking about with that. You get into a room, a chat room with employers, and they're there to talk with you, type messages back and forth, either in the general chat to the whole group or what we do and what many other employers do, pull up a separate window and have a private one-on-one conversation with a job seeker to kind of have a mini interview with them on the spot to see if they are a fit for the jobs you're recruiting for.

And Gerald, do you see people get jobs from this?

Oh yes, all the time. We see a lot of success from these events. We have many employers that have been participating in it for years because of the candidates they get for their opportunities to hire. And I know we have placed several candidates into jobs and hired them for opportunities that we have recruited from our career fairs as well.

And are you— we looking for all kinds of skills, Gerald?

Yeah, there's opportunities across the U.S. in all different types of disciplines, a lot of IT, finance, engineering roles. But I mean, we have federal agencies lots of unique, diverse portfolios of positions. So really, if you're looking for any job, I highly recommend signing up for the event.

Gerald, what does it cost to do this?

For a candidate, it is completely free to register. For an employer, the cost will vary. If you are interested in sponsoring the event, you can get a little access to some bonus features, but at the minimum for the pricing for an employer, it is $495. So, that to access thousands of applicants' resumes is really— it's such a great opportunity.

Leanne, do they get in touch with you? A company, how does that work?

So, it can work a number of ways.

Gerald.

Yeah, I can feel that. So it's the same process. If you want to register as a company, go to benderconsult.com, click on the virtual career pair— pay the virtual career fair page in our career section. If you click register, it'll ask you from there on our other career fair site if you are an employer or a job seeker, and same process, just real simple.

Well, I think everyone should be involved in this virtual career fair. I mean, I'm not kidding you, there's so many, uh, as Darryl told you, not just private sector but federal agencies. And just as Leanne said, Leanne, when I've been on the phone, when you've been— because you are the marketing director with the accounts— I've been with you so many times on the phone And often I hear people say, when is that virtual career fair?

Yeah, they, they love the fair. Even today I have a voice message to give a company call back to answer some questions that they have. They look for me to send out information. A lot of the companies I reach out to and remind them of the upcoming fair. But one of the things that the companies really love is access to all of the resumes for the job seekers that have signed up, that they can download that and they can access it at any time. So, it's not just the ones they talk to during the fair. They have access to all of them that have signed up. So, maybe a couple months down the road, a company has a different position they need to fill. They can actually go there, look at the candidates, and reach out.

Okay, Gerald, one more time, what is the date?

It is next Wednesday, so one week from tomorrow, April 26th.

April 26th, because you got time to tell everyone, you've got time to share this, uh, podcast with other people. You could be helping someone find employment, or it could be you, or it could be a business listening, or a not-for-profit, a, uh, someone in the federal government that says, whoa, I want to be involved in this. And you go to vendorconsult.com. Now don't forget vendorleadership.org. You heard about all these wonderful programs, and you know, we hope you will make a donation just go to benderleadership.org. You know, fight the fight for these high school students living with disabilities and mental health disabilities. Go make a donation. It doesn't matter how small, everything counts. Gerald, Scott, Leanne, thank you so much for being with me today.

Thank you, Joyce.

Thank you, Joyce.

And we— You're welcome. We end every show with a quote, and today it is: The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart, said Helen Keller. This is Joyce Bender, America's Voice, where disability matters, at Voice America Talk to you next week, and in the words of Mary Brooker, choose joy.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific time and 2 PM Eastern time for another installment of Disability Matters right here on the Voice America Variety Channel. We are the leader in live internet talk radio. VoiceAmerica.com.