On Wednesday, October 17th, Ability Beyond Disability celebrated National Disability Employment Awareness Month by hosting Disability Mentoring Day for individuals with disabilities in the greater Danbury area. This marks the 5th annual Disability Mentoring Day celebration that Ability Beyond Disability has held in northern Fairfield County.
This three-day event provides job exploration in the community for people with disabilities. Local businesses serve as mentors; hosting tours, job shadowing opportunities, and really giving participants a taste of what it takes to work at a specific company or in a specific field. This year Ability Beyond Disability had over 100 people with disabilities participate in the event – including students from many local high schools - with over 50 mentoring sites hosting them. Businesses such as Target, Olive Garden, Danbury Animal Welfare Society, Bethel Police Department, Home Depot and Millennium Dental participated in this year’s event.
Western Connecticut State University hosted the Disability Mentoring Day Celebration Kick-Off on Wednesday, October 17th at 10:00 a.m. at the Midtown Campus. Speakers for the Kick-Off event included President/CEO of Ability Beyond Disability Thomas H. Fanning, Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi, and Danbury Mayor Mark D. Boughton.
Ability Beyond Disability also hosted the 2nd annual Disability Mentoring Day celebration in lower Fairfield County. Over 40 individuals participated. That event kicked off at Norwalk City Hall on Thursday, October 18th.
Ability Beyond Disability is a 501{c} (3) organization headquartered in Bethel, Conn. and Mount Kisco, N.Y. It provides a wide range of services for over 2,000 people with a disability that inhibits their activities of daily living -- including numerous residential alternatives, employment training, career counseling, job placement services, cognitive and life skills instruction, clinical and therapeutic support, and volunteer and recreational activities. Today, its services extend far beyond the Danbury community into much of Connecticut and the Hudson Valley, New York. For more information about Ability Beyond Disability go to www.abilitybeyonddisability.org.
