U.S. Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) Sector Summits

Situational Analysis

The U.S. Department of Labor wanted to embark on a sector-specific strategy to deconstruct barriers, build relationships and increase employment in specific industries.  DOL’s Office of Disability Employment Policy chose three high-potential sectors to launch this strategy:

Entertainment – Lights! Camera! Access!

Healthcare: Careers Trends, Best Practices and Call-To-Action Summit

Financial Services: Profit by Investing in Workers with Disabilities

Tapping EIN SOF’s extensive network, and Always Good To Go (AGTG), LLC project management expertise, the two companies teamed as sub-contractors to create and produce three distinct and effective sector summits.

Lights! Camera! Access! agenda.

Lights! Camera! Access! agenda.

Results

Historic conferences blending high-level corporate partners, government agencies, unions, talent pipelines and disability organizations, with outcomes including call-to-action pledges that were actually fulfilled.

Entertainment: Lights! Camera! Access! – Utilizing Squire’s leadership with the Diversity Committee of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, this “Call-to-Action” Summit, hosted by the Television Academy and attended by then-DOL Secretary Hilda Solis, and Assistant Secretary Kathleen Martinez, issued “soft challenges” to union, network, industry, diversity, veteran, academic and disability executives. This resulted in motivating NBCUniversal to create What Can WE Do? disability awareness and recruiting event that onboarded four interns with disabilities, including a veteran. Recently, Assistant Secretary Martinez helped launch Actors AccessSM at SAG-AFTRA, whereby performers could opt-in and self disclose their disability on this database of actors, making it easier for casting directors to find them. To date, nearly 1,500 performers have self-identified as having a disability.

Photos can be found at: http://www.dol.gov/dol/media/photos/slideshows/20100710-lca.htm
Remarks by Secretary Solis: http://www.dol.gov/_sec/media/speeches/20100710_LCA.htm

Healthcare: Careers Trends, Best Practices and Call-To-Action Summit – With leadership of Karen McCulloch, founder of National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND) as Subject Matter Expert, and framing this Summit with results of National Council on Disability/Manpower Report, Workforce Infrastructure in Support of People with Disabilities: Matching Human Resources to Service Needs, Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago hosted. In attendance were then-DOL Secretary Hilda Solis, Assistant Secretary Martinez, OFCCP Director, Pat Shiu, then-White House Office of Public Engagement’s Kareem Dale, and healthcare, disability, diversity, veteran and academic executives.  Subsequently, ODEP signed an “Alliance Agreement” with NOND. Details are at: http://www.dol.gov/odep/alliances/nond.htm Here is final report: http://www.dol.gov/odep/pdf/20110517.pdf

Financial Services: Profit by Investing in Workers with Disabilities

Teaming with host Financial Services Roundtable, this Summit brought together Assistant Secretary Kathy Martinez, former Assistant Secretary of DOL’s Veterans Employment & Training Administration (VETS) with financial services, diversity, disability, and academic executives and thought leaders. The final report can be found here: http://www.dol.gov/odep/pdf/20110719.pdf

EIN SOF Insights

All three Sector Summits were successful using a holistic approach to bring together the demand (employers) and supply side (talent) of the employment equation to build sustainable relationships moving forward. Subsequently, EIN SOF and AGTG also collaborated on DOL’s What’s Your Connection? disability awareness campaign, with EIN SOF as a GSA Prime Contractor, teaming with Concepts PR.