Listening to the People, Officially

Access Living, governed and staffed by people with disabilities, is Chicago’s only center for independent living that focuses on full equality, inclusion and empowerment of all people with disabilities.

On Thursday, Feb. 11, Access Living will host a Historic Six-City Listening Tour organized by the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP).  U.S. Labor Department Assistant Secretary Kathleen Martinez will participate in the Chicago event. ODEP wants to hear from you and the rest of the interested public, including people with disabilities,  on these three areas of interest:

• Effective ways to increase employment of women, veterans and minorities with disabilities
• Identification of federal and state systems that are effectively collaborating to achieve successful employment outcomes for people with disabilities
• Top issues on which the federal government should focus to support an increase in labor force participation of people with disabilities

Employment is higher among people with disabilities than it is among the rest of the population.

Martinez will be joined by officials from key federal agencies, including the:

• Veteran’s Employment and Training Service, U.S .Dept. of Labor,
• The Employment and Training administration
• Woman’s Bureau and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs of the U.S. Dept of Labor and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services
• Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services of the U.S. Dept of Education
• U.S. Office of Personnel Management
• U.S. Social Security Administration

The Chicago stop of the Listening Tour  will be held on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010,  from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Access Living, 115 W. Chicago Ave., 4th Floor, Chicago. This is an accessible location.

For registration information, contact (703) 684-0029 or visit www.disabilitylisteningtour.com. For information about Access Living, contact Gary Arnold at (312) 640-2199 or garnold@accessliving.org.