VCU-RRTC Business Roundtable e-Newsletter - October 2005

Roundtable Member News

  • Debra Ruh, president and founder of TecAccess of Rockville, Virginia and VCU Business Roundtable member, was names the Virginia Minority Small Business Person of the Year for 2005. Congratulations Deb! Read Article
  • Katherine McCary with SunTrust Bank, Inc. recently produced an internal video for first line managers and direct service staff within the bank. This short video will educate managers and assist them to better accommodate workers with disabilities. We hope to show it at our next Roundtable meeting.
  • Representatives from the VCU Business Roundtable assisted with the Business Day at the Sixteenth Annual APSE (Association for People in Supported Employment) Conference held in Mobile, Alabama on July 26th. Home Depot, Booz Allen Hamilton, Manpower, Wachovia, Children Hospital of Cincinnati, Rose Lee Productions, Inc., and SunTrust Bank were all represented and gave outstanding presentations at the opening session panel discussion facilitated by Neil Romano. Each representative also conducted several sessions during the day!


    Best Practices & Business Resources

    American Ramp System (AM RAMP) may be a portable, low cost, and durable solution to providing accessible entry at your organization. These ramps can be rented or purchased. Visit www.americanramp.com for more information.

    The U.S. Business Leadership Network (BLN) National Conference is scheduled for November 1-3, 2005 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. For more information, go to www.usbln.com.

RRTC Project Updates

Project 1: Partnership Employment Project (PEP)

As we enter November we now have confirmed all of our sites for the project. Four are operational and we will be visiting our newest sits in November, 2005 and January 2006. We are please to have sites in New York City and Minneapolis. We are continuing to enroll participates and offer training to all sites regarding employment of people with disabilities.

Project 2: Business Mentor Program

The VCU Business Mentoring Program currently has 15 business mentors recruited. The selection of students with disabilities is underway. The program is working to finalize the number of student participants prior to the October 19th Business Mentoring Day reception at SunTrust Bank. This will be the kick-off for the program providing an opportunity for VCU students with disabilities to interact with business representatives interested in becoming mentors.

Project 3: Disability Management Practices & Successful Job Retention

On May 16, we completed our first site visit at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC), conducting three initial interviews targeting our contact person, an HR leader, and an operations leader.
Our next site visit to CCHMC took place on June 15-16, 2005, during which time we conducted an additional 14 interviews, including employees and their supervisors, a key support person, and a variety of key program leaders. This concluded our first of three rounds of interviews at this site. Our first site visit for our second targeted organization, University of California at San Francisco, will take place on October 25-27, 2005. In addition, we are currently developing a manuscript on retention as it relates to people with disabilities, based on our ongoing literature review.