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Pictured above are OOD Director Kevin Miller (left) and Sauder Wordworking Company CEO Kevin Sauder.
Sauder Woodworking Company
in Archbold, Ohio, was recognized on Wednesday as a Champion of Opportunity.
Sauder’s commitment to hiring individuals based on their ability is commendable
as they continue to serve as a model for disability inclusion in the work
force.
“Sauder is a company
that places importance on disability inclusion. They have made a tremendous
effort to ensure that they not only talk about being inclusive, but they
incorporate it into their hiring practices and workplace culture,” said OOD
Executive Director Kevin Miller.
The Champion of
Opportunity Award honors companies that go above and beyond in their commitment
and who serve as statewide examples of what it means to provide quality
employment opportunities and increased independence for individuals with
disabilities. This award represents the highest recognition that OOD presents
to a business partner.
Sauder is
a statewide example of promoting diversity and inclusion in the workforce. They
realize this largely untapped candidate pool can help their company produce
world renowned products and contribute to their company’s success. In addition
to implementing policies and procedures to achieve an inclusive and diverse
culture, they share their successes with other industries to help them in their
inclusion efforts. They are currently a member of the Ohio Business Leadership
Network and an active partner in the Workforce Initiative of Ohio in the
Northwest area.
OOD worked with Sauder to assist Aaron in finding employment.
“Sauder Woodworking has a long history of providing opportunities for individuals with disabilities,” said Kevin Sauder, President and CEO of Sauder Woodworking. “My father and grandfather both knew that with a little extra effort and patience, we could provide employment for people with all kinds of disabilities and the company and community would benefit greatly.”
OOD congratulates Sauder Woodworking Company on receiving this award and for their commitment to integrate individuals with disabilities into the workforce.
For more information about OOD's Opportunity Awards, visit ood.ohio.gov/Employers/Opportunity-Awards.
OOD staff tour the Sauder Woodworking Company warehouse.
Section
511 of the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) requires OOD
to provide career counseling and information and referral services to
individuals with disabilities who are employed at subminimum wage by an entity
that holds a special wage certificate under Section 14 (c) of the Fair Labor
Standards Act (FLSA).
OOD
is partnering with ARC Industries, Inc., a certificate holder in Franklin
County, to pilot this program before the statewide roll-out next month. OOD staff
met with approximately 20 workers in subminimum wage employment on Wednesday to
provide career counseling services that are designed to promote opportunities
for competitive integrated employment. Topics covered included Employment
First, places on the path to community employment, supported employment and how
to apply for OOD services.
Supporting veterans with disabilities has been a long and arduous process. How veterans with disabilities reintegrate into the workplace has evolved over our country's history. In the
Civil War, soldiers underwent 30,000 amputations in the Union Army
alone. This resulted in wheelchair patents as veterans were encouraged to
continue normal life. Integrating veterans with disabilities
to find a vocation was controversial and new. Until then, disability was
generally viewed as a thing to be cured, pitied or hidden, with either a
medical fix-it approach or a charitable stance.
World
War I produced more disabled veterans, resulting in The Smith-Sear Veterans
Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Act of 1918. By 1920,
the public was included when President Woodrow Wilson created the VR program
(PL 236.) Six weeks later, Governor Harry Davis approved a proclamation
resulting in Ohio's VR federal partnership.
A
generation later as U.S. soldiers came home from World War II, Dr. Howard Rusk
pioneered a rehabilitation program for disabled airmen at the Army Air Force
Convalescent Center. First dubbed “Rusk’s Folly” by the medical
establishment, rehabilitation medicine soon became a medical specialty. In
1951, Dr. Rusk opened the Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New
York. Staff, including people with disabilities, pioneered work on such
innovations as electric typewriters, mouth sticks and improved prosthetics.
Meanwhile in 1945, a new campaign, which today is
National Disability Employment Awareness Month, used movie trailers, billboards
and radio ads to convince the public that its "good business to hire the
handicapped."
Today,
we find military-based inventions from zippers to GPS not only in mainstream
society, but in assistive technology with special disability uses. Such
byproducts of war sometimes bring victory on the disability front.
For
more information on disability history, visit ncld-youth.info/index.php?id=61.
In
cooperation with Lawrence County OhioMeansJobs, OOD is cosponsoring a Veteran’s
Disability Focus on Ability Job Fair in Ironton, Ohio, on November 17th.
The
Ohio Department of Veterans Services offers many resources for veterans. For more
information, visit dvs.ohio.gov.
Veteran’s Day celebrates the men and women who have served in the U.S.
military in times of war and peace. There are more than four million veterans
who have disabilities. If you are a veteran with a disability and want to work, visit OOD's new vocational rehabilitation portal, OODWorks.com, by clicking here http://oodworks.com/.
OOD
offices will be closed on Friday, November 11th.
Earlier
this year, Marvel Comics released Venom:
Space Knight #3, the latest space tale of Flash Thompson, a veteran and
double amputee, who finally gets prosthetic legs. To ensure the character's
change had the ring of realism, Marvel reached out to the Wounded Warrior
Project, a nonprofit that consists of and supports veterans with disabilities. For
more information, visit www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2016/01/30/1-wounded-vet-an-adviser-on-comic-book-superhero-getting-prosthetic-legs.html.
Vocational Rehabilitation
Current FFY2017
Individuals in Job Ready Status: 2,919 774
(For county level information
& map, visit our website)
Individuals Employed: 2,377 714
(Employed, not yet
successfully closed)
Successful Closures: 774
(Employed for over 90 days,
case closed successfully)
Disability Determination
(FFY 2017 as of 11/4/2016 – Week 5)
Applications Received: 18,071
Determinations: 19,193
Productivity Per Work Year (PPWY) 368
(Total number of cases processed divided
by the number of work years funded)
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