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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDisability Advisory Board - Minutes - 07/15/2021Thursday, July 15, 2021, 2021 at 5:30-7:30 p.m. Zoom Access via City Hall, 300 LaPorte Avenue 7/15/2021 – MINUTES Page 1 DISABILITY ADVISORY BOARD (formerly COD) REGULAR MEETING – Contact: Carol Thomas, Equal Opportunity & Compliance Manager – 416-4254 1. CALL TO ORDER Terry Schlicting called to order at 5:38pm 2. ROLL CALL Present: Terry Schlicting, Anna Fuller, Rachel Knox-Stutsman, Mandy Morgan, Marilee Boylan, Sami Peterson, Joe Tiner, Linda Drees Board Members Absent: Davina Lau Staff Members Present: Carol Thomas Guests: 3. AGENDA REVIEW 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a. Corrections: Called to order: 6:34 needs changed to 5:34 b. Terry motion to approve with correction, Marilee second, approved unanimously 5. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Bike Program Recap i. Conversation about following up with city’s new adaptive bike program, DAB will look further to see if bikes in the program will be obtained that are usable for folks with physical disabilities. ii. Carol will ask Amanda or Alex to visit DAB b. Community Recognition Awards i. Awards that are given can be found at: https://www.fcgov.com/codma/ ii. Need to get on Mayor Arndt’s calendar iii. Need to learn about the restrictions CSU (location of presentation) may have, as well as increased costs for fees for reservations and food service iv. Want to be cognizant of the audience and participants and who may be able to attend with or without vaccine v. Is it valuable to hold it virtually? vi. Cost last year was around $4000, and the DAB’s budget is $5500; the funds are transferable to different uses, but do not roll over in to 2022. vii. Sami would like to have verbiage for awards to ensure they are empowering for individuals with disabilities 1. Sami will email out suggested changes viii. Idea to hire Sam Moritz to create videos for a virtual award 1. Two versions, one that can be promoted on social media and a longer more extensive video that sends back to the DAB website 2. Cost may define what can be done Thursday, July 15, 2021, 2021 at 5:30-7:30 p.m. Zoom Access via City Hall, 300 LaPorte Avenue 7/15/2021 – MINUTES Page 2 DISABILITY ADVISORY BOARD (formerly COD) REGULAR MEETING – Contact: Carol Thomas, Equal Opportunity & Compliance Manager – 416-4254 3. Include contacts to local news (as long as it’s not inspirationalizing) 4. Timeline would be tight to add in the video aspect 5. Is there a priority of the awards over the Disability Employment Trainings? 7. OLD BUSINESS a. October National Disability Employment Awareness Month Planning i. Marilee, Sami, Rachel update: 1. Panel questions: a. Ask hiring managers, what info/resources do you need to hired a diverse workforce? 2. Potential dates: Aug 27-Sept 1 3. Videos, success stories publicly, need venues to distribute stories 4. Communication Plan ii. Talked to Chief HR Officer and HR Director, decided that this is not the right time for this training to push out to human resources, regarding training portion (not to include videos), based on pandemic recovery, budgeting year. They support the effort, but not taking away employees hours while staff is short and adding required trainings in would affect the day to day productivity. Staff trainings are provided by Carol to staff in this area iii. Dept of Labor has a webpage of National Disability Employment Awareness Month with lists of suggestions iv. Look at Dept of Labor resources and focus on the Communication Plan and Success stories v. Marilee: this IS the right time, many employers need staff and people with disabilities need employment vi. Terry: wondering (similar to the bike program) if there is follow through or sustenance to programs to ensure there is sustainability for people with disabilities vii. Marilee: Is Carol familiar with ACE, Project Search, SWAP? Rocky Mountain ADA center does not meet the needs of community members viii. Carol: trains to the need, and brings in additional trainers for what is needed ix. Terry: are we viewing from a compliance lens? Or an Advocacy and Enhancement lens? Is Carol’s position as a compliance position? x. Carol: position title is compliance manager, but she serves as an advocate Thursday, July 15, 2021, 2021 at 5:30-7:30 p.m. Zoom Access via City Hall, 300 LaPorte Avenue 7/15/2021 – MINUTES Page 3 DISABILITY ADVISORY BOARD (formerly COD) REGULAR MEETING – Contact: Carol Thomas, Equal Opportunity & Compliance Manager – 416-4254 xi. Marilee: what needs to happen are these small conversations about what hiring managers know versus what they need to know, clarifying myths/excuses versus facts, minimizing myths by giving people experiences with working next to folks with disabilities xii. Sami: would like greater awareness from the perspective of people living with disabilities and it is hurtful to hear that they are simply passing on this level of training being denied. If there are other topics that trainings are being done on, why not also allocate resources to the topic of better hiring practices for people with disabilities. Employment first employees have coaches that come along with individuals with disabilities, and it’s a good process that creates a win-win for both the individual and the employer xiii. Marilee: Maybe there is a way to do trainings virtually in smaller pieces to maybe spread out the resource expenditure xiv. Linda: Will the new DEI position/office affect some of this work? Is ableism going to be part of their work, or just race? xv. Sami: there has been a lot of training on race and gender, and it rarely includes people with disabilities- should be included in all cultural competency trainings xvi. Terry: optimistic because of previous experience with the newest hired DEI Officer xvii. Linda: how do we get our voices heard with resources, so the DAB can do our job xviii. Carol: recommends looking at other Disability Awareness Month activities, found on: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/initiatives/ndeam xix. Sami: important for lived experience to help systems to understand the fullness of living disabilities; individuals that obtain and maintain employment are “job ready” and “employable”. The Processes for decades have been identifying those candidates, rather that the newest work that customizes employers to reach individuals in better ways that only looking for “job ready” employees with disabilities. Adds depth and dimension to employment xx. Carol: can the subcommittee regroup and talk about other possibilities if training is not approved xxi. Marilee: we need to know what barriers exist to know what will be approved based on the other possibilities the subcommittee would choose xxii. Carol: to clarify, this isn’t a lack of interest, it a matter of limited resources Thursday, July 15, 2021, 2021 at 5:30-7:30 p.m. Zoom Access via City Hall, 300 LaPorte Avenue 7/15/2021 – MINUTES Page 4 DISABILITY ADVISORY BOARD (formerly COD) REGULAR MEETING – Contact: Carol Thomas, Equal Opportunity & Compliance Manager – 416-4254 xxiii. Terry: could we compromise that we revisit or plan for the training in six months? Would they be open to that? DAB’s responsibility is to push for things like this, but cannot be shut down with all ideas xxiv. Sami: clarifying that “interest” means “where does HR feel inadequate when hiring people with disabilities”, what myths can be corrected? “what do they not know”? xxv. Sami: could it be building a timeline for proficiencies to be developed? xxvi. Rachel: Create a display, posters in break rooms, bulletin boards that have a list of resources for where to get employees with disabilities and agencies to connect with. If it’s the partnerships that are missing, those can be developed. xxvii. Carol: I am the one that needs to learn about those partnerships xxviii. Marilee: would like to invite Jeni Arndt to a future meeting to brainstorm, and move forward with Communications Plan xxix. Carol: A set of videos, a graphic, and messaging may work xxx. Sami/Marilee: stories and experiential listening is what works xxxi. Marilee: put together marketing for employee newsletter xxxii. Carol will ask about an employee newsletter and press release; goal to create support and awareness that diversity including disability needs to be trained into hiring practices xxxiii. COD members will vet trainings that would be good for Carol to list for training to suggest to employee training 1. Currently uses trainings from DVR, Jan, Rocky Mtn ADA, 2. Can add a training from Office on Employment First if one is created 3. Marilee will find out: How do you gauge what barriers that exist when applying to the city, where does the city need to put their recruitment resources for the highest cost-effectiveness xxxiv. Linda finds Office of Employment First website is really helpful xxxv. Marilee will define some marketing pieces xxxvi. Terry summarizes that awareness is important and to stay cognizant of the time commitment they are asking from city staff. An event would be a good kickoff for trainings in a way of being proactive xxxvii. Joe: online trainings are useful but may not have the attention of the viewer and would need some level of accountability. Pre-post surveys could provide some data to show growth in learning or misinformation correction, or takeaways from training Thursday, July 15, 2021, 2021 at 5:30-7:30 p.m. Zoom Access via City Hall, 300 LaPorte Avenue 7/15/2021 – MINUTES Page 5 DISABILITY ADVISORY BOARD (formerly COD) REGULAR MEETING – Contact: Carol Thomas, Equal Opportunity & Compliance Manager – 416-4254 xxxviii. Marilee: partnering with the Office of Employment First choose from the list of topics they currently offer xxxix. Carol will follow up with that list and media pieces that may be possible xl. Rachel: suggests using social media during Disability Awareness month with “did you know ____” with links to training on each topic. xli. Proclamation for the City would be a good idea xlii. NEXT STEPS: Carol will send list upward in City to see what Office of Employment First trainings are of interest Carol will send list of communication tools to DAB to use for marketing Check with ARC to see if they are doing proclamations DAB can partner with Create a package that will help with hiring practices after these steps Subcommittee will meet based on needs Videos can be shared on multiple platforms – DAB members will gather folks to share their stories xliii. Community Recognition Awards will not move forward this year, videos can replace it this year and prepare for a spring showing/awards event xliv. Should include stories of success AND stories of people who want to work but has had barriers to employment, to frame it to increase awareness b. Adult Changing Tables Status – Will address in August meeting c. 2021 Workplan Check-In – Will address in August meeting 8. ADJORNMENT a. Announcements: Terry Schlicting called to adjourn at 7:51. Next meeting will be August 19th, 2021, on zoom.