The Resource Center celebrates National Disability Employment Awareness Month

The Resource Center, workers with disabilities and the community have been having fun celebrating October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM).

On October 11, The Resource Center honored people with disabilities who have achieved success in community-based employment. The event, held at TRC’s administrative offices on Dunham Avenue in Celoron, recognized people who in 2024 reached a milestone year of continual employment. The celebration was part of TRC’s observance of October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Executive Director Denise Jones called the honorees trailblazers and said “we must continue to promote inclusion in the workplace. I’m pleased to see the number of people in this room who have reached milestones in employment.”

Terri Johnson, Director of Employment and Community-Based Services, said the event was a chance to “recognize workforce contributions of people with disabilities.”

People were honored for reaching one, five, 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 years of employment. Not everyone being recognized was able to attend, because some people were at their jobs. Those who were there received a certificate of achievement.

The longest-serving honoree was Andy Dyckes, who has been working in the Fredonia Central School District for 30 years.

Several honorees had family members who attended the event and shared in the excitement as their loved ones were called up to be recognized. Similarly, representatives of some of The Resource Center’s business partners attended the ceremony and celebrated with their employees.

Proudly holding the certificates they received for reaching a milestone year of employment are, from left, front row, Ronald Corson, Andy Dyckes, Desarae Rivera, Courtney Poitras, Alex Smith, and Jeffrey Schuster; and, back row, Christopher Davis, Darren Judkins, Julio Nazario, Josh Holsinger, Collin Leroy, and Richard Silsby.

As another way to celebrate Disability Employment Awareness Month, TRC’s Employment Services staff asked Jamestown Mayor Kim Ecklund and Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz to issue proclamations, and both leaders graciously complied.

Mayor Ecklund invited representatives from The Resource Center to City Hall for a photo to commemorate the observance. Mayor Wdowiasz visited TRC’s Mary Andrews Center on East Chestnut Street to meet with employees and talk about the ways in which The Resource Center supports people with disabilities to have community-based jobs.

Pictured from left, MacKenzie Smith, Jamestown Mayor Kim Ecklund, Alex Smith, and Lynne Newman, The Resource Center’s em¬ployment services administrator, pose with the Mayor’s proclamation declaring October as NDEAM Month in the city. Alex and MacKenzie are supported through TRC’s Employ¬ment Services Program. In addition to issuing the proclamation, Mayor Ecklund also planned to have City Hall lit up in purple, pink, blue, red, and green October 29 and 30 in recognition of NDEAM.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month celebrates the value and talent that workers with disabilities add to the workforce. The NDEAM 2024 theme is “Access to Good Jobs for All.” The Resource Center offers a variety of supports that help people with disabilities obtain and maintain jobs.

At TRC’s Allied Industries manufacturing centers in Dunkirk and Jamestown, workers with disabilities produce items for the federal government and local industries. TRC’s Environmental Services Division performs janitorial services at local businesses and governmental facilities. And TRC’s Employment Services Program assists people with disabilities in finding jobs and then provides job coaching so employees can be successful. By partnering with local businesses, The Resource Center supports more than 200 people with disabilities to have jobs.

Pictured with Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz’s proclamation are, from left, Paul Hurley from The Resource Center’s Employment Services Program; Ashley Winship, Sandy Korzeniewski, Nick Bell and Dylan Reed from TRC’s Allied Industries manufacturing division; Mayor Wdowiasz; Denise Jones, TRC’s executive directoor; Lynne Newman from TRC’s Employment Services; and Beth Ray, who works at the Mary Andrews Center and is an advisor for TRC’s Make a Mark self-advocacy group.