Disability Mentoring Day

Disability Mentoring Day (DMD) is a day set aside to promote career development for students and job-seekers with disabilities through career awareness activities such as tours of community businesses and opportunities to speak with employers. With leadership, coordination, and resource materials from the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), State Coordinators around the country organize their own activities that bring students and employers together for informational sessions about career opportunities. Allies, Inc. is your State Coordinator!

Disability Mentoring Day is officially commemorated on the third Wednesday of every October and is implemented in locations around the country and internationally. It is designed to benefit from the creativity of State Coordinators, with each community planning activities that best suit the interests and abilities of its students and employers. In New Jersey we match students individually in small groups or to companies within their community for a day of career awareness. Students are matched based on their vocational interests and company participation is developed specifically to meet these interests. Their day may include a tour and overview presentation of the company as well as an introduction to different employees and their job functions. It also may include the opportunity to interview and shadow these employees.

By providing students with the opportunity to visit a business or government agency that matches their interests, Disability Mentoring Day underscores the connection between school and work. This experience encourages students to evaluate personal goals, target career skills for improvement and explore possible career paths.  Disability Mentoring Day also provides employers with an opportunity to tap into a pool of potential future employees, recruit interns, learn more about the abilities people with disabilities offer to the workforce and demonstrate positive leadership in their community.

Contact David Awrachow or call at 609-689-0136 ext. 127 for more information.