FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
JOANNE KAISER – 848-932-1493
Essex and Newark leaders to host a breakfast on Thursday, June 16, 2016, to honor local businesses who hire people with disabilities."
Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr., Essex County Executive; Mayor Ras J. Baraka, City of Newark; the Essex County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the Essex County and Newark Workforce Development Boards’ Disability Issues Committee will host a breakfast on Thursday, June 16, 2016, to honor local businesses who hire people with disabilities.
The breakfast, sponsored by the Kessler Foundation, will be held at McLoone’s Boathouse, West Orange, 6 Cherry Lane, from 8:30 to 10:30am.
Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo will welcome the invited guests. Alice Hunnicutt, Director, NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services, will provide Opening Remarks. Samuel Okparaeke, Executive Director, Essex County Workforce Development Board, and Amina Bey, Newark Workforce Development Board, Executive Director, will provide closing remarks.
The four local businesses being honored as our Employment Champions are:
· Brookdale ShopRite / ShopRite of Newark
· Newark Beth Israel Medical Center
· InspiriTec
· Universal Coffee Express II
All four businesses have provided employment and career advancement opportunities to people with disabilities living in our local communities. The Essex County and Newark Workforce Development Boards’ Disability Issues Committee is holding the breakfast to honor these local businesses that hire people with disabilities as well as to invite other businesses to consider similar hiring practices.
The unemployment rate in New Jersey for people with disabilities is 19.9% (NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development), which is 6.7% higher than the national average of 13.2% (Bureau of Statistics).
The Essex County and Newark Workforce Development Boards’ Disability Issues Committee is working to build relationships with local businesses and to provide an easy employment onramp to businesses that want to hire people with disabilities, which will help to lower the unemployment rate in Newark and Essex County for people with disabilities.
The Essex County and Newark Workforce Development Boards’ Disability Issues Committee is putting into practice the spirit of the Employment First Initiative. New Jersey is the 14th state to adopt the Employment First Initiative, which states that employment should be the first choice for any person with a disability who wishes to work.
The committee plans to make the Employer Recognition Breakfast an annual event. The committee will continue to encourage local businesses to develop partnerships with local service providers and to provide employment for people with disabilities which will give New Jersey’s largest minority the opportunity to be productive tax-paying citizens of New Jersey.
For additional information contact: Joanne Kaiser – 848-932-1493 or .