We had planned initially to follow up on the Internet voting for the runners-up in the Campaign for Disability Employment (CDE) “What Can YOU Do?” video contest this week, but they have extended the deadline for voting until the week of June 18; so if you have not yet watched those videos, do so now and then go vote at the CDE website.
Everyone loves a contest, or a challenge. These are tried and true gimmicks for raising awareness and motivating people to take action. At the end of May, we posted about the U.S. Department of Labor’s $10,000 contest for app developers to build tools that “improve employment opportunities and outcomes for people with disabilities,” as Darla Stuart puts it in her brief note for the Aurora Disability Examiner. The Internet makes it easy to participate on any number of levels, from contestant to judge to sharer.
Plus, it enables us to peek in on how others are using these devices to forward their own goals. A case in point is the Jobmatch Challenge launched at the beginning of this week by Northcott Disability Services in Australia. This note in the Mt. Druitt Standard says the organization, which has branches in Parramatta and Penrith, is working with local businesses to get a dozen people with disabilities hired over the course of 20 days.
A modest goal in numbers, but one that could demonstrate the benefits of hiring these people to dozens of other employers served by the organization, as well as dispel some myths about the barriers that some employers think would prevent them from doing so.
The Jobmatch Challenge website lays out like a reality show; with profiles of the 12 jobseekers outlining their skills, experiences, and goals. What you’ll note if you even glance through them, is the diversity of occupations in which these individuals with disabilities are seeking employment. This is a point of pride for Northcott, as referenced on the description page:
Jobmatch clients are placed in many fields including administration, customer service, hospitality, retail, manufacturing and warehousing, travel and information technology.
Jobmatch has also produced a video about the Challenge, which is worth watching, just to hear the narrator say that one of the benefits of hiring people with disabilities is that these employees are “less likely to take a sicky.”
Northcott’s Jobmatch Challenge started on June 4, and 10 of the 12 jobseekers’ pictures appear under the “Employed” box on the right hand side of the home page. Stay tuned to see if they can find employment for the other two participants over the next several days.
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Image by Jerry Bunkers, used under its Creative Commons license.