Maurice Wexler with Chair Dominguez
In connection with President Bush's New Freedom Initiative, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, along with private industry and non-profit partners, has held several corporate and community leadership conferences designed to advance the hiring of people with disabilities by introducing business representatives to groups that place people with disabilities.
Each regional conference consists of a breakfast session followed by an information-sharing working session. Chair Cari M. Dominguez and other Commission representatives meet personally with business leaders and human resource executives as well as with experts from area organizations prepared to provide referrals and other types of support to qualified job candidates with disabilities.
The law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, P.C., International Paper, and the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce hosted a pilot conference in Memphis, Tennessee, in November 2003. Highlights included hearing employer tips from Commissioner Paul Steven Miller. Following this event, conference hosts and attendees formed the Memphis New Freedom Committee, which continues to actively promote the recruitment and hiring of local people with disabilities.
In May 2004, under the umbrella of its JobTech program, the Epilepsy Foundation of South Alabama hosted a conference in Mobile, Alabama. This partnership emphasized to area employers the importance of understanding the implications of not only visibly apparent but also hidden disabilities in the workplace. Since the meeting, the local foundation and its national parent organization have implemented a number of strategies to continue the dialogue with employers in the region and across the country. Additionally, the law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz hosted a conference in Birmingham, Alabama.
This page was last modified on December 15, 2008.
