Author: Jim Baumer
Jim Baumer, Director, Maine Business Leadership Network
Email: [email protected]
1. Tell our readers (mostly) in Maine about your work with the Employment Alliance for People with Disabilities (EAPD) in Texas?
The Employment Alliance for People with Disabilities (EAPD) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that champions and supports best practices in the employment, advancement, and inclusion of people with disabilities. I co-founded the EAPD two years ago because I wanted to find an innovative way to address barriers to employment for people with disabilities. I reached out to my colleagues and the community to form a collaborative partnership focused on increasing employment opportunities for people with disabilities, as well as educating employers on how to recruit, hire and retain individuals with disabilities. I guess the stars were aligned because in less than 6 months, the EAPD had an ongoing commitment of a multiplicity of founding members that included business and community leaders; and we hosted the first inclusive job fair in South Texas in October 2011, targeted to people with disabilities and open to the public.
The EAPD Job Fair attracted over 350 job seekers, mainly individuals with cross disabilities; and what was even more outstanding was that 10% of attending job seekers found employment by participating in the EAPD Job Fair. That outcome led to The Texas Governor's Committee on Persons with Disabilities naming the EAPD as the 2012 winner of the prestigious Lex Frieden Employment Award in the Martha Arbuckle Category, which recognizes the single most innovative organization in the state of Texas that has transformed the lives of job seekers with disabilities. That honor and recognition opened many doors; it also provided the EAPD with the needed recognition and momentum, along with the credibility needed to foster new partnerships. We are now seen as a pacesetter in our region for advancing diversity and disability inclusion in the modern workplace.
2. You recently wrote what I thought was a terrific article about language, the use of words, and how that usage shapes our attitudes towards people, including people with disabilities. What prompted you to tackle this very provocative subject?
Thank you very much. I read an online article at DiversityInc written by a colleague, Lori Golden. Lori and I met last year at the USBLN Annual Conference. She is the AccessAbilities™ Leader, at Ernst & Young. Lori's article, Diversity Leaders: 6 Things NEVER to Say about Disabilities, focused on opportunities for diversity leaders to shift language within their organization's policies and programs to create a lexicon that is respectful of everyone and promotes corporate diversity and inclusion. I was encouraged by Lori's article and wanted to add a meaningful online comment. As I was writing and researching, I became inspired. My online comment turned into its own article that I ultimately posted on the EAPD website, How Can We Act Upon the True Meaning that Everyone is Equal? I believe that language does shape our global culture and words impact our lives. Words can inspire change, awaken love, or engender hate; language can also foster discrimination, or build creativity and innovation. I'll admit that I've always been a lover of words-well, actually I'm more a lover of good writers, authors and poets.
A friend once called me a "logophile," which means, "someone who loves words." What's funny about that is I didn't know the definition at the time; I had to look it up.
3. One of my big challenges as Maine's first BLN director has been "selling" the value of being a member to businesses. How do you "sell" your business partners on value in getting their buy-in and support?
I understand that challenge. We know that employers build competitive advantage by diversifying their workforce and recruiting, hiring, retaining, and advancing individuals with disabilities. What you and I are really tasked with, as heads of our organizations, is demonstrating to businesses the economic value of creating an inclusive corporate culture. That often requires making the business case for hiring people with disabilities.
In my experience, the best strategy to deliver that message and get business partner buy-in is to personalize the business case. When approaching potential business partners, I use a "diversity wingman"; this is a corporate leader who can help me close the deal by delivering peer-level support and real-life examples of how his/her business is effectively employing people with disabilities. The next step, which is outside the scope of your question, but I think it's important to say, is to continue to provide your business partners with employer-focused resources on disability employment, diversity, inclusion, and other best practice information to help develop organizational readiness.
As a BLN, you have access to the full USBLN Network, an exceptional support resource, with linkages to national partners that can help your BLN develop monthly/quarterly trainings, professional programs and events.
4. You and I both bring a workforce background to our efforts in promoting and enhancing employment opportunities for people with disabilities. What is one of the compelling reasons from a workforce development perspective for businesses to get on-board with diversity and inclusion?
That's a good one. Okay, you're putting me on the spot; of course, if you didn't do that in this interview, I might think less of you (laughing). One compelling reason from a workforce development perspective would have to be the impending workforce crisis as Baby Boomers age and retire. Every day 10,000 Baby Boomers reach age 65. According to the Department of Labor, US employers will need 30 million new college-educated workers by 2020 but fewer than 23 million people will graduate from US colleges in the next 10 years. By the year 2030, roughly 20 percent of the U.S. population will be aged 65 and older, and America will need millions of new workers to take the place of retirees in the workforce. Given these demographics, expanding diversity and outreach strategies to effectively recruit, hire, retain, and advance people with disabilities, older workers, veterans, and our returning wounded warriors will be essential to the long-term growth and economic success of any business. Okay, how did I do?
5. When I met you at last year's USBLN Conference in Orlando, I was immediately struck by your passion that you have for your work. What fuels that passion and keeps you pushing forward past the challenges and obstacles?
Lots and lots of coffee and sugar-are we done? Okay, seriously, I think my passion and determination comes from the fact that I'm a person with disabilities and a gay man. I'm old enough to remember times in this country when people with disabilities were "warehoused" in nursing homes, stripped of countless freedoms, when discrimination was legal in many forms. People were forced to block buses, close off streets, barricade themselves for days in a Greenwich Village bar, and participate in other forms of civil disobedience, to protest gross discrimination and fight for equality and civil rights. I've committed myself to change-and to building a culture of access and inclusion™ for all. I want our youth to grow up knowing that they are equal, they are important and they have the same chance to succeed as anybody else.
I just believe in equality.
Darren Bates is the President/CEO of the Employment Alliance for People with Disabilities in south Texas. He has extensive experience with national and statewide associations, advocacy groups and grass-roots organizations that affect social change.
Darren travels extensively across the country, providing outreach, presentations, and training to both public and professional audiences, connecting stakeholders interested in social justice, leadership, and equality.
Darren is an exceptional relationship builder and is nationally known for his passion and dedication to championing diversity and inclusion strategies that support the empowerment of social minority groups.
Contact Darren Bates at: [email protected]
Website: http://eapd.weebly.com