The Sierra Group's Foundation

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Sierra Group Foundation

What does competitive employment for people with disabilities look like to you?

Recognizing that leadership is required to build the connections between job seekers and employees with disabilities and employers, The Sierra Group Foundation works to build collaborative solutions that are designed to reverse the high rate of unemployment for people with disabilities.

 
 

Connecting the Need and the Resource

One major challenge involves identifying the population with disability. "Disability" refers to an individual's capacity to function within a given social and environmental context. An illness or injury may result in disability for one activity but not another, or for one occupation but not another. The complexity of the term has given rise to various definitions and indicators, and there is no current accepted gold standard for counting the population with disability. While the U.S. Census estimate offers a broad overview to the extent of limitation and disability across the nation; nationally representative, well-designed surveys and studies have produced differing but equally credible estimates.

A related challenge involves projecting the number of people who will have a disability and need support in coming decades. Such projections involve debates among experts about the extent to which life expectancy will rise, and whether the risks of developing and recovering from a disability are increasing or decreasing. Over the last few decades, disability appears to have diminished among older people; but it is not clear whether younger people have experienced a similar improvement. At this time, reasons for the decline in disability are not clear, adding to the difficulty in forecasting trends.

 
 

50 million Americans

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, nearly 50 million Americans or one of every five people ages 5 and older, have a disability. That number is expected to grow over the next 25 years as the U.S. baby-boom generation enters the ages most prone to disabling injuries and illnesses. Participation in society to the fullest extent possible by people with disabilities, whether young or old, veteran or civilian, has been a goal of U.S. policies and programs. Translating this aim into reality requires confronting a series of challenges. We estimate that Federal and State budgets support over 15,000 programs designed to help people with disabilities find and maintain employment. Despite this massive investment, the unemployment rate of people with disabilities is still estimated to be over 50%. 

 

What we do

The Foundation has been established as a 501C(3) non-profit organization that invests our resources in three areas. They are:

  • Establishing sustainable forums and tools that connect people to existing resources. All too often the systems designed to save a job for a person with a disability are complicated to navigate. The Foundation seeks to deploy tools and training that allow for easier access to the funded infrastructure already in place.
  • Supporting relevant research on accessible technology in the workplace and supporting high levels of professional standards and credentials. Accessing reliable information and consistent advice lies at the center of every sustainable business process. The Foundation seeks to share best practice ideas that can transform the recruiting and hiring process allowing more qualified candidates with disabilities to secure competitive employment.
  • Providing grants to support job-seekers with disabilities in securing the tools they need to secure competitive employment. Transportation, wardrobe, and adaptive technology costs can sometimes stand in the way of a person realizing an opportunity that they are qualified to accept. The Foundation seeks to provide resources to help eliminate these obstacles so that qualified people can succeed in employment
 
 

one more way logoIn building the One More Way search engine, we’ve launched the world’s first comprehensive disability, incentive, and employment search tool. Rather than searching the entire web, One More Way yields search results that speak directly to your employment, accommodation, and diversity needs. Based on Google’s Co-Op Search technology, the One More Way search engine is the new tool that needs to be included in every diversity toolkit.

 
 
employment incentives logo

Making a difference

100,000 hits per month!

The Sierra Group Foundation and its major funding partner, The Sierra Group have created employmentincentives.com as an informational tool to assist employers in recognizing the scope and value of various employment incentive programs. The Sierra Group is a national consultancy offering solutions in the areas of Accessibility, Compliance, and Diversity.

 
 

Do you have an interesting point of view that can benefit our 100,000 monthly visitors? If so, please email michael.fiore@thesierragroup.com. We are always looking to add valuable content to this project. If you want to write about disability and law, employment, discrimination, hiring trends, services, employee morale issues, training tactics, risk management, or any other topic related to the theme of the project, let us know.

 
 

The Sierra Group Foundation's 2007 Annual Report

The Sierra Group Foundation is pleased to release our 2007 Annual Report. PDF - 256 K The report is followed by a cover letter from the Foundation's Executive Director, Michael Fiore). 2007 was a year of growth and change as new programs were introduced and the Board expanded its roster. Feel free to call our office to request materials in alternative format. Also Learn about our Board members.

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download a copy of Adobe Reader You can download the documents to your hard drive by right clicking on the file name and choosing "save target as" from the menu. Go to our accessibility page to find out more information on the accessibility features of this site. PDF documents will open in a new browser window.

 
 

INTERESTED? Please contact The Sierra Group via e-mail at info@thesierragroup.com or by phone at 1.800.973.7687.

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