New York, NY, — October 15, 2002 — Mikki Lam, wheelchair mobile disability leader will accept an award for New Yorker of the Year for her accomplishments in promoting the employment of qualified individuals with disabilities in New York City. The award will be presented at the New York City Disability Mentoring Day Breakfast being held on Wednesday, October 16th at Pier 17 in the South Street Seaport at 8:30AM for the students and job seekers and their corporate mentors. The Breakfast is underwritten by IBM and the Rouse Company. "Throughout the years, we have made outreach to include in our workforce those with disabilities," said Paul Harnett, General Manager of South Street Seaport Marketplace, a subsidiary of the Rouse Company, the developers of who have generously donated the venue for NDMD Breakfast. "We have seen first hand the significant contributions made by our disabled workers, and the benefits of having a diverse and representative workforce, and are pleased to contribute our resources to National Disability Mentoring Day."

Equality Staffing, LLC (www.EqualityStaffing.com), the Manhattan-based placement and consulting firm with industry leading expertise in the field of inclusive hiring to create a diverse workforce, has been selected as the coordinator for "National Disability Mentoring Day" (NDMD) for New York City. Launched in 1999 by the White House to help boost the employment of people with disabilities and to heighten the impact of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, in October. NDMD is an annual nationwide job shadowing and career exposure program that matches more than 1,500 students and other job seekers with disabilities with international and local corporations in a wide variety of fields and industry sectors. This year, National Disability Mentoring Day will take place on October 16, 2002.

"NDMD provides disabled job seekers with a unique and invaluable opportunity to gain important insights into prospective career paths, as well as to make professional contacts that could result in job opportunities," says Jeffrey Klare, the founder and CEO of Equality Staffing, (and who also serves as NY Chair of NYS Disability Mentoring Day Committee). "Although the vast majority of disabled individuals are well qualified for gainful employment positions, the unemployment rate for the disabled has consistently been about 70%, many times the national average; National Disability Mentoring Day is a much-needed and highly effective program that helps to break this cycle by helping those with disabilities find employment positions at which they can productively apply their skills and talents."

"Economic empowerment is at the heart of civil rights for people with disabilities," explains Andrew J. Imparato, President and CEO of The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), which hosts NDMD with the US Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). "By building relationships between students with disabilities and mentors who are working in fields that interest them, National Disability Mentoring Day helps to create a pipeline of qualified workers for participating employers and gives disabled students greater direction and motivation to pursue their career goals."

In just three years, NDMD (www.AAPD-DC.org/Mentor.html) has expanded from a small DC-based event for three dozen students, to a national event with a rapidly growing network of volunteer Local Coordinators all across the country, several thousand "Mentees" and more than a dozen National Corporate Sponsors that make NDMD a truly effective public-private partnership that tackles the longstanding problem of unemployment and underemployment among people with disabilities. The 2002 NYC Corporate Mentoring Participants are:

IBM	MetLife
South Street Seaport Marketplace	NBC
ABN AMRO	New York Life
Con Edison	Pearl Theatre Company
Ford Foundation	Penguin Putnam Publishing
Grey Global	Philip Morris Companies
HBO	South Street Seaport Museum
HSBC	UBS Warburg
IKON

About Equality Staffing, LLC
Equality Staffing, LLC is a Manhattan-based placement and consulting firm that is an industry leader and innovator in helping employers create an inclusive professional and productive workforce whose diversity reflects the employer's and employee's community at large. Equality Staffing's placement services include both full-time and part-time employees, from senior management through entry level, in all major fields and sectors. The principals of Equality Staffing collectively have more than 80 years of experience in placement, and have received numerous awards. The company is headquartered at 110 Williams Street, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10038, Tel (212) 608-3300, Fax (212) 202-4228. For more information, please visit www.EqualityStaffing.com. 

Contacts:

Equality Staffing, LLC
Jeff Klare/Julie Kaplan
(212) 608-3300

New York Life
Lisa Fels/Karen Finkston Payes
(212) 576-7937/(212) 576-5624

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