National Leaders Visit Boston to Promote Mentoring for Youth with Disabilities

On September 13th-15th, leaders from across the nation gathered in Boston to strategically address the need to include youth with disabilities in the mentoring movement. Partners for Youth with Disabilities, Inc., a Boston based non-profit and pioneer in the effort to bring mentoring to millions of youth with disabilities in the nation, hosted a Leadership Symposium and 2 day conference at the Hilton Boston Logan Airport hotel. Two hundred sixty people attended from as far away as Hawaii.

Photo from left to right: Maureen Gallagher, Chairperson National Conference; W. Roy Grizzard, Jr., Assistant Secretary, Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor; Regina Snowden, Executive Director, Partners for Youth with Disabilities; Dr. Margaret Giannini, Director, Office on Disability, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Theresa Clower, Executive Director of the Federal Mentoring Council, Corporation for National and Community Service

The following national leaders were among the sixty-four speakers who presented during keynote presentations and workshops: Dr. W. Roy Grizzard, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor; Dr. Margaret Giannini, Director of the Office on Disability at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Theresa Clower, Executive Director of the new Federal Mentoring Council at the Corporation for National and Community Service; Andrew J. Imparato, President and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities; Brooke Ellison, Harvard University alumna and author of the book, Miracles Happen; Marie A. Trottier, Disability Compliance Officer at Harvard University; Honorable Reginald C. Lindsay, United States District Judge; Elmer Bartels, Commissioner, Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission; Rayna Aylward, Executive Director of Mitsubishi Electric American Foundation; and Regina Snowden, Founder and Executive Director of Partners for Youth with Disabilities.

Setting a national agenda on inclusion of youth with disabilities in mentoring programs, leaders discussed how to include representation of youth with disabilities in research, best practices, technology, and funding opportunities.

Dr. W. Roy Grizzard, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor spoke about the significance of mentoring in his Welcome Address. During his eloquent remarks, Dr. Grizzard said that "you [mentors] should think of mentoring as a road where young folks might be often caught up in the fog of dealing with their day-to-day disability, but by the security and the straightness of the road that you provide with mentoring, the caution lights and signals at the side of that road, you will enable them to ascend to the spire at the top. They will ascend through the fog, and when they get to the top of that spire they, too, will be able to enjoy the beauty, the grandeur, the vision that a full life can be living with a disability."

Dr. Margaret Giannini, Director of the Office on Disability, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services talked about a new nationwide mentoring program that her office is launching for youth with disabilities focusing on health and fitness. Delivering the conference Keynote Address, she said, "We recognize that physical fitness is attained through two key activities: increased physical activity, and the adoption of healthy, nutritional behaviors. Our goal is for children and youth with disabilities to incorporate these, as I said, throughout their lifespan. What better way to do this than with a mentor/mentee program? The I Can Do It, You Can Do It initiative is attempting to reach the estimated 6 million children and youth with disabilities, ages 6-21, who need and should be engaged in this kind of a program using a mentor/mentee model."

Theresa Clower, Executive Director for the newly established Federal Mentoring Council of the Corporation for National and Community Service, delivered the conference Mentoring Address. Ms. Clower pledged to ensure that youth with disabilities have a voice in the Council and invited PYD to join and advise the Council's working group: "I would like to personally and publicly invite the Partners program to partner with us in the National Mentoring Working Group. I believe that the voice of the disability community is really heard through Partners for Youth with Disabilities, and that we need that voice on the National Mentoring Working Group."

The research panel members who presented at the conference noted that although there is ample evidence that mentoring provides guidance and resources to non-disabled youth that lead to increased chances for entering post-secondary education and employment, there is little research on the impact of mentoring for youth with disabilities. Research needs to be done so that more funding for mentoring programs that are inclusive of youth with disabilities will be made available.

Rhonda Basha, conference research panel presenter and Supervisory Policy Analyst at the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy, said, "We need to know the impact of mentoring on youth with disabilities in the areas of employment and post-secondary education. What is it that needs to be done in those mentoring programs that is most likely to cause young people to advance in meaningful, paying jobs, self-sufficiency, and moving on to post-secondary education?"

Partners for Youth with Disabilities began plans for this national conference a year ago after opening the National Center on Mentoring for Youth with Disabilities. The first of its kind in the nation, the national center provides training and technical assistance to organizations invested in enrolling youth with disabilities in their mentoring programs.

According to Maureen Gallagher, Chairperson of the National Conference on Mentoring for Youth with Disabilities, "This was a milestone event in the history of mentoring. Through working together, we are proactively taking steps to ensure that youth with disabilities are included in mentoring initiatives across the nation. This conference raised public awareness about the importance of mentoring and the impact it can make on the lives of youth with disabilities."

In closing, Regina Snowden, Founder and Executive Director of Partners for Youth with Disabilities summarized the sentiment of many at the conference: "Thank you for your commitment to be here. The inclusion of all of our voices will broaden and deepen the impact we can have across the nation. Let's continue to work together to make it happen."

Sponsors of the National Conference included the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy, Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation, Ability Magazine, Boston After School & Beyond, Christopher Reeve Foundation, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission.

More informaion about the National Center on Mentoring for Youth with Disabilities.