2016TOOLKIT

Florida Disability Employment Awareness Month

Florida Disability Employment Awareness Month is a part of a national, broad-based effort to promote career development for students and job seekers with disabilities through hands-on career exploration and job shadowing opportunities. Thank you for volunteering to be a part of this exciting, heart-warming and important event.

INSIDE THIS TOOLKIT

This toolkit is designed to assist you with planning your DEAM activities. It includes helpfulhow-to tips on:

• Creating a Timeline

• Organizing a Local DEAM Planning Committee

• Developing a BudgetGenerating Sponsorships

• Recruiting Employer Mentors

• Matching Mentees & Mentors

Please be sure to visit our website at where you can download the Community Liaison Appendix, which contains:

• Mentor Recruitment Packet

• Parental Photo Release Forms

• Fundraising Letter Templates

• Sample DEAM Proclamation

• DEAM Brochure

• DEAM Event Planning Guide

• Sample DEAM Press Releases

COMMUNITY LIAISONS

Community Liaisons are the most important piece of the DEAM puzzle. The job of the Community Liaison is to recruit potential menteesand businesses to serve as mentors. They are masters of organization and logistics; with a never ending supply of energy and motivation. They are the thankless many, whom without DEAM would be impossible.

REQUIREMENTS

Community Liaisons need to be affiliated with an organization that is familiar with and supportive of DEAM. Additionally, Community Liaisons need to agree to perform the following items below.

•Complete and return the Community Liaisoncontact form. Follow the suggested timeline provided in the toolkit;

•Create a Local Planning Committee to assist in the execution of DEAM activities and events. The Planning Committee should be large enough to handle the size and scope of the event/s.

•Participate in, or arrange for a substitute to participate in, Florida Committee sponsored, toll-free conference calls.

•Develop a schedule for planning DEAM activities, including firm deadlines based on the recommendations in the toolkit;

•Notify The Able Trust immediately if circumstances interfere with the ability to coordinate DEAM event(s); and,

•Complete the post event report, which will be available via Surveymonkey.com no later than December 1.

STATEWIDE SUPPORT FOR DEAM

The Able Trust, through the generous support of our DEAM sponsors, provides numerous supports and materials to Community Liaisons at no-cost. These supports should be utilized to recruit potential mentees, businesses and inform the members of your community to the importance of DEAM. All promotional materials will be made available on the Florida DEAM website for liaisons to download for their local use.

Materials

•Promotional Brochure

•Recognition Certificates

•Planning Guide

•Letter templates

•Press Release template

•Business Recruitment Toolkit

Information Exchange

•Toll-free dial-up for Community Liaison Conference Calls

•Community Liaison Listserv

•Extensive Florida DEAM website

Promotional Support

•Statewide Communication Campaign

•Posters

•Financial Awards (Limited Availability)

CONTACT INFORMATION

The Able Trust

3320 Thomasville Road, Suite 200

Tallahassee, FL 32308

Fax: 850.224.4496

Email:

Internet:

Disability Employment Awareness Month:

PLANNING TIMELINE

The following timeline is recommended for hosting FloridaDisability Employment Awareness Month activities. You can adjust most of these dates to fit your local plans.

DateAction to Take

AprilRegister as a Community Liaison with The Able Trust.Liaisons from prior years need only contact The Able Trust to notify us of your intent to participate.

May/JuneAssemble a Local Planning Committee and create a plan and timeline for your DEAM events. Assign roles and divvy up responsibilities among the members to make the job easier for everyone.

JuneEvent pre-planning; develop budget.

July/AugustOrder and receive DEAM2016 promotional literature.Continue reaching out to businesses to act as sponsors for local events and as mentors.Applications due for Financial Awards

AugustFinalize and distribute mentor and mentee recruitment packets (invitation, brochure, and application). Finalize and distribute local sponsor letters with information about your budget/needs (invitation, brochure, benefits of participation).

SeptemberFinalize event logistics; work with employers to arrange

accommodations for mentees. Develop a media plan for promoting

your DEAM activities. Order and receive recognition certificates printed

by The Able Trust.

September 2Financial award application due to The Able Trust.

September/OctoberFlorida DEAM Activities Statewide! -- Job shadow,

career fair and mentoring activities. Present certificates to

participants. Work your media outreach plan! Press releases/op-

eds released for local events.

October Statewide DEAM kickoff-Date TBD.

December 19Community Liaisons complete DEAM post event report via surveymonkey.com

JanuaryDEAM Outcomes and Post Event Report released by The Able Trust.

CREATING LOCAL PLANNING COMMITTEES

DEAM provides an excellent opportunity to collaborate with community stakeholders around a common goal: employment of people with disabilities. It is recommended that Community Liaisons establish a Local Planning Committee suitable to the size and scope of your events to help share the work load. A committee will also help to recruit additional and new businesses into the event, making your DEAM activities more successful.

WHO TO RECRUIT?

While it is up to Community Liaisons in determining who should be members of a Local Planning Committee, here are some types of people that may be especially helpful:

•Businesses- DEAM wouldn’t happen without businesses. Not only will they serve as mentors, but they can recruit other mentors and assist in finding financial or in-kind support.

•Civic Organizations-to help recruit additional businesses (e.g., Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions)

•College Career Services Offices, Disability Support Services Coordinators, School Guidance Counselors and Special Education Coordinators – for recruiting students and understanding the dynamics of taking students out of the classroom for a day;

•Disability Organization Staff – for reaching greater diversity of people with disabilities and experts in disability-related specialties;

•Government Officials (Federal, State, Local) – for assistance in gaining the participation of all levels of government, including elected officials and political appointees.

•Media and Public Relations Professionals – for developing a media strategy to publicize local events and promote coverage of events;

•Parents – for outreach, help with transportation, and for tending to any parental concerns about the safety of students, especially younger students;

•Professional Associations – for reaching a broad range of employers (e.g., Chamber of Commerce, Society for Human Resource Management);

•Public and Private Transportation Officials – for possible assistance in providing transportation during the day;

•Vocational Counselors – for reaching job seekers.

HOW TO UTILIZE YOUR COMMITTEE

The purpose of a DEAM Planning Committee is to spread the work around instead of having one person being responsible for everything. Additionally, a committee should bring with it additional and new resources, energy and ideas. How you structure your committee is ultimately up to you and the plan you develop for DEAM, but listed below are some ideas. Additionally, everyone should take part in recruiting businesses to act as mentors or host a DEAM event. Examples of roles within a planning committee are below:

  • A person to coordinate transportation concerns
  • A person to coordinate a kickoff or ending celebration
  • A person to coordinate matching mentees to businesses
  • A person to coordinate PR efforts and taking pictures
  • A person to coordinate recruiting mentees or contact service agencies
  • A person to coordinate fundraising/donations

Additional members of your planning committee can be assigned to assist the “lead” coordinators of a particular aspect of your DEAM committee.Give your committee members the opportunity to choose what role they would like to assume on the planning committee. It is important to set goals for each person and to follow up with them at your group meetings. This ensures everyone knows what they should be working towards and hopefully keeps you informed to their progress. If a member is vague or does not seem to be progressing along as much as the other members you may need to assign additional people to assist them to ensure success in that area. The last thing you want is to be caught blindsided in the 13th hour by the person who was supposed to coordinating the kickoff only to find out they haven’t done anything.

VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT TIPS

  • Always make sure to actually ask a potential volunteer to volunteer, don’t assume a mass email or announcement will motivate someone to volunteer.
  • Get help, take someone with you when go and ask someone to volunteer or DEAM participant, preferably another volunteer. Bonus points if your “partner” knows the person knows the person you are meeting with.
  • Have a specific need, when asking the person to volunteer have a specific task in-mind; stay away from vagueness.
  • Have an initial organization/orientation meeting; lay out the duties and roles of the different sub-committees, overarching goals of the planning committee, the rest of the meeting dates/times

DEVELOPING A BUDGET

Although the principal “cost” associated with DEAM is your time and the time of other volunteers you recruit, there are five potential direct costs, which are listed below. In each case, the costs can potentially be offset by in-kind contributions or funds from local donors. Along the same line as donors is offering up sponsorships to cover your costs. Sources of local donors and sponsors can be private companies, public agencies, nonprofit organizations, or individuals. Here are some specific ideas that you might pursue. There is a marked difference between a local donor and a sponsor. A local donor gives freely, without the expectation of anything or recognition in return. A sponsor will expect recognition, product and label placement, or another benefit in return for their sponsorship dollars. Sponsorship dollars often times comes from a company’s marketing/advertising budget which is where the expectation of a benefit is derived from. Many national companies offer community grants through their local stores to support the local community. Often times these grants are listed on their websites, but can also be found in the stores as well. Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Target and Kohls are examples of companies that offer these types of grants.

Transportation

All DEAM events will involve transporting Mentees. The Community Liaison and their organization can plan this centrally, providing transportation for all Mentees throughout the day or charge the mentees with being responsible for their own transportation. Alternate ideas include:

• Have Mentees provide their own transportation

• Recruit an in-kind sponsor from city buses, transportation companies or organizations with their own vehicles, or colleges and universities

Statewide Resources from the Commission for the Transportation Disadvantaged

TD Helpline 800-983-2435
Area Provider Listing by county:

Sign Language Interpreters

If deaf students and job seekers participate in your DEAM event arrangements will need to be made for sign language interpreters.

•Contact the local sign language interpreting agencies to see if they will sponsor costs.

•Check with the local community college, university or disability agency to see who has a program and is willing/able to provide interpreters at no cost.

Food &Beverage for DEAM Events

A DEAM event may integrate a breakfast, lunch, and/or reception, either as a kickoff event or as part of the Mentee’s day. An important note;statewide sponsors, while often providing in-kind donations of food are not required to and may decline to provide donations.

•Seek a sponsor for the space and/or the refreshments

•Ask the Workplace Mentor(s) to provide lunch for their Mentee(s)

•Fundraising efforts to offset the cost of meals.

Administrative Expenses

Community Liaisons can raise money to offset staff time as well as direct expenses. Be careful, however, not to have staff time be too large a portion of the overall budget. Sponsors will be more favorable to a budget that emphasizes direct costs. Surplus donations can be utilized to offset staff time.

STEPS TO RECRUITING LOCAL SPONSORS

Sponsors can help underwrite the costs of kickoff events, local promotional materials or specific DEAM needs such as transportation or accommodations. Here are some tips to recruiting sponsors from the community.

•Identify the Scope of Needs Develop a plan. This will establish what you actually need to execute the DEAM activities.

•Develop a Budget Strategize with your organization and your Local Planning Committee about what components might be offered in-kind (such as food for a kickoff event) and what components may be include in an overall budget.

•Determine a Fundraising Goal Consider ways to divide the total budget into potential in-kind contributions and cash contributions.

•Sponsor Recognition “There is no such thing as a free lunch” is a concept some of you may be familiar with. Businesses sponsor nonprofit/community activities to obtain community recognition, good will and to place their brand and products in front of people. So think about how you can “show off” your sponsors and make sure potential sponsors know of the visibility they will obtain by sponsoring.

•Develop List of Potential Sponsors Start with individuals you know personally and/or who participated in DEAM in previous years.

•Explore Local Options for Grants Many local businesses that are a part of national chains offer community grants to local nonprofits. Examples of these are: Wal-Mart, Kohls, Target and Sam’s Club.

•Prepare a Written Invitation to be a Sponsor Prepare a letter that clearly and concisely describes the contribution level and sponsorship benefits. Two crucial points about your letter:

1)Keep your letter short (you can enclose additional background material);

2)Put the reason for contacting a potential sponsor at the beginning of the letter (donot make them find it).

•Contact Potential Sponsors It may be helpful to speak informally with potential sponsors before sending them a formal sponsorship invitation. If businesses and organizations realize the importance of DEAM first and become host sites, then asking for money will be easier. Once a formal sponsorship solicitation is sent, wait about a week and follow up by phone.

•Thank Yous! Remember to thank sponsors as often as you can, through recognition on materials, verbally at events and in writing after DEAM. You can personalize your ‘thank yous’ with photos of mentees, copies of the materials with their name listed, etc.Consider including in the thank you, how many people participated in the event, where their logo was displayed and any additional positive stories that can be related from the event.

RECRUITING BUSINESSES

As a general rule, it will be easiest to recruit participating employers if there is an existing relationship with the business or someone accompanies the Community Liaison that has an existing relationship. However, that isn’t always possible, so the Community Liaison will need to approach business alone. The Planning Committee should be assisting with recruiting businesses; another good way to recruit businesses is to ask past participants if they can refer a vendor or colleague. It will help to have the list of mentees career interests to work off of, that way specific businesses can be targeted instead of going out blindly. Do not wait too long for the list to begin recruiting businesses. Waiting could lead to a shortage of time in finding business mentors.

•Start with Who You Know

•Businesses with Good Records of Employing People with Disabilities

•State and National Sponsors

•Large Employers in Your Community

•Ask Employers Who Have Committed to DEAMfor Recommendations of OtherPotential Mentors

•Contact Your Local Chamber of Commerce, Society for Human ResourceManagement, Business Leadership Organizations or Service Clubs

•Approach Specific Companies Desired by Mentees

•Local Dignitaries, Local Celebrities (also provides positive press)

How to Navigate the Corporate Hierarchy

A phone call is the most common way to make an initial contact with a business. With a small or local business, it is easy to get through the owner, manager or other decision maker; however there will be additional layers to navigate to get to a decision maker. This will help you to navigate the hurdles or barriers that may be thrown in front of you.

  1. First thing, don’t be afraid to call. The worst they can do is say no, and in the grand scheme you are offering them a way to meet their needs and goal.
  • There are two possible departments to contact to inquire about participating in DEAM, 1) Human Resources-HR makes the hiring decisions and since DEAM is a career-oriented event it makes sense to go this route. HR usually engages the community in recruitment events such as career fairs and college recruitment events. If a business is large enough, they may have an HR person that specializes in Diversity and Inclusion, whose goal is to expand the diversity of the company’s employees. Some businesses have goals related to veterans, disabilities, women or different races. 2) Communications/Public Relations/Marketing-The Communications/PR/Marketing department is involved in obtaining positive recognition for the business in the community and for increasing sales to the business. This department may be involved in other community support events such as United Way campaigns.
  1. Do research in advance. Learn what the business does, what community support events they participate, if they have a focus on disability employment and other bits of knowledge that will help you in your endeavor. LinkedIn is a great tool to utilize to find out who the right person to talk to is at a particular business.
  2. Prepare a script. You will probably only have a few minutes of the person’s time on the other end of the line, so you need to make the most of it. This is going to be your first impression and you don’t want to bungle it by tripping over your words and not getting to the reason you called. Making a script and practicing it will provide you an extra boost of confidence when making the call and increase the chances of success.
  • Your script should be short and concise. Write down everything you want to say, then go back and mark the statements as a 1, 2 or 3 by how important they are. Then write your script to ensure all of the 1s get in and maybe some of the 2s. If you have subsequent conversations then you can introduce the 3s then. The most important thing to have included in the script is to include an ‘ask’. Your ‘ask’ can be either for them to participate in DEAM outright or to have an in-person meeting to further discuss DEAM.Do not overwhelm the person you’re talking to.Also, practice your script in front of a colleague or family member to ensure everything you say makes sense and there are no lingering questions.
  • When developing your script, think back to all the times an employer told you no these may be some of the same objections that come up during DEAM
  • We don’t have time to participate in DEAM. The great thing about DEAM is that it’s flexible to suit the needs of the business. If October is not a good time, you can elect to have a site tour or job shadowing any time during the year.
  • What about liability. Many businesses both large and small participate in DEAM with no issues. The participants are not actually working during the day and it would be no different than “Take Your Child to Work Day”. People with disabilities are not any more inherently prone to accidents than a person without a disability.
  • What do we get out of it? DEAM is a great to meet specific goals and needs of your business. Do you have goals related to diversity? Community outreach and participation? A desire to showcase your company? Are there hiring needs? There are a lot of things a business can get out of participating in DEAM, the participating business gets to set their goals.
  • I’ll have to check and get back with you? I understand. Can we set a meeting for next (pick a day of the week) where I can come meet with you and (the decision maker) to talk about DEAM and your concerns.
  • Your script needs to include tangible benefits the business will obtain from participating in DEAM. There are many businesses that will participate for the good will, while others want to obtain a benefit. Be sure to cover those in the script. Other benefits are what you are not asking of them. At this point you are not asking for money or a long time commitment which are benefits in and of themselves.
  • You can elect to email your target prior to calling to briefly introduce yourself and to let them know that you will be falling up with a call. This method may relieve some anxiety related to cold calling; in addition this will give the person you are contacting time to think about DEAM prior to your conversation.
  • Regardless of the outcome with your initial contact, try and follow-up with the individual. It need only be something along the lines of, “I enjoyed our conversation. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me.” Your follow-up could result in them participating in DEAM.

MATCHMAKING