Engaging Businesses from a Blindness Perspective: New Jersey’s Development of a Business Relations Unit

Presenters: 
Amanda Gerson, New Jersey CBVI
Date/Time [EST]: 
10/25/2017 - 2:00pm
Description 

Over the past 2 years, with assistance from the JD-VRTAC, the New Jersey Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CBVI) has developed a 4-person Business Relations Unit (BRU) dedicated to engaging and serving business as a primary customer, coordinating and providing trainings and technical assistance, organizing targeted hiring events, and facilitating a talent pipeline from one of NJ’s untapped talent pools. By providing a range of services to NJ businesses, our goals are to increase awareness, eliminate misconceptions and stigma around blindness, and reduce barriers to employment for persons with vision impairments. Complementing the developing of the BRU was an additional project goal with a focus on business: to implement strategic training initiatives on the use of Labor Market Information (LMI) as a counseling tool by VR Counselors to facilitate greater informed choice by CBVI consumers. In this webinar, Amanda Gerson from CBVI will discuss the goals of the project, lessons learned, and the successes of participation in the JD-VRTAC Learning Collaborative.

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The JD-VRTAC is a national center housed at the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The center and its webinars are funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) within the US Department of Education under grant #H264A140002.
Project 
Job-Driven VRTAC