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Good Afternoon! I'm Jim Rothrock,
I'm the Commissioner for the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services,
and I will be offering us some comments and kind of emceeing
this event today.
Let me thank you very much for making time in your busy schedule to come to this
5th annual event,
which allows us to remember that October for decades, has been
referred to in some capacity -- it started out as "hire the handicap" month, now we've evolved
in many programmatic and linguistic manners, and now we're here to celebrate
National Disability Employment Awareness Month
Where - during the month of October - we get to do two major things:
One - we get to thank all of the employers
who've been successful in hiring the many clients that come through our system,
Virginians with disabilities who have many talents and abilities that are very important
to businesses around the commonwealth.
Bill Hall will be speaking in just a moment on behalf of the Dominion, but before going any further
let me think publicly Dominion:
they have provided the resources that make this very easy to do.
We're going to be doing several things today.
one of the things that we've tried to make a tradition of over time
that we're going to have one of our clients
who is funding success as a musical performer
entertain us.
We're going to be launching, or have launched
a new marketing campaign
it's titled "Think Beyond the Label" if you wish to Google it, you can just type those words
in and it'll take you to a national website
where our agency has been working with the other vocational rehab agencies all across the U.S.
to come up with novel ways to get business's attention,
and underscore the importance of looking for disabled workers as a viable and hopefully
growing part of their workforce.
"Think Beyond the Label" thing, if you watch MSNBC like I do in the morning, you've seen
some of these ads,
but for those of you don't do that, here's an opportunity to look at two thirty second spots
and this is kind of the official statewide launch of the "Think Beyond the Label" campaign
Sure, I'd like to diversify my workforce - I just wish that
all of the important information was gathered together in one place
Done.
Thanks! Do you work here?
Not yet...
From tax info to debunking myths, the field guide to evolving your workforce
has everything you need. Download it now at thinkbeyondthelabel.com
Oh sure, we have plenty of employees that you could label as "different".
Like Janice:
"Fashion Deficient" - and Tom:
"Copy Incapable" -- Dan: Nah, it's open kimono time! -- Marie: Lookin' good Dan
"Volume Control Syndrome"
But we focus on the talent and skill that each person brings to the team.
No one's really concerned with labels, not even mine.
Labels get in the way - disabilities rarely do. Visit thinkbeyondthelabel.com to evolve
your workforce.
Again, underscoring, in a very novel and humorous way
that people with disabilities have many talents, and we need to look towards them.