Kennedy Space Center is joining the National Disability Mentoring Day observance on Wednesday, Oct. 20, by providing local students with disabilities an opportunity to spend a day with the KSC/Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Family. The event is in support of National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

NASA civil service and contractor employees are matched with students and take them to their work sites, providing hands-on, enriching experience for the student. Students learn first-hand about different types of careers, make the connection between school and work, and target career paths.

Employees selected to mentor a student attend a brief orientation presented by the local Disability Mentoring Day coordinator and a member of the Disability Awareness Action Working Group (DAAWG). Students and mentors will meet at 9 a.m. Wednesday during a Kick-off Celebration at the Florida Space Authority. The group will participate in an Estes rocket launch.

Goals of the event include providing internship and employment opportunities for people with disabilities; promoting disability as a central component of diversity recruitment for a more inclusive workforce; dispelling employers’ concerns about hiring people with disabilities; increasing confidence among students and job seekers with disabilities; and launching a year-round effort to foster mentoring opportunities, according to Cheryl Bartoszek, a local Disability Mentoring Day coordinator.

Statewide, Disability Mentoring Day is supported by a collaborative effort between The Able Trust and the Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, along with a Florida State Planning Committee.

National Disability Mentoring Day began in 1999 as part of a White House effort to increase the profile of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, celebrated every October.

For information about KSC DAAWG, visit:
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/nasa-only/groups/daawg/index.htm

To learn more about Florida Disability Mentoring Day, visit the Able Trust Web site: www.abletrust.org

To learn more about National Disability Mentoring Day, visit:
http://www.dmd-aapd.org