Disability Mentoring Day is an international event held on the third Wednesday of October, which is National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Disability Mentoring Day is an international event hosted by the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) in collaboration with the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) to promote career development for students and job-seekers and make employers aware of an available pool of qualified candidates.

This program started as National Disability Mentoring Day in 1999 in the White House, as a program to increase the profile of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which is celebrated every October. The program began with just three dozen participants. In 2001, National Disability Mentoring Day was passed to AAPD to administer and build; that year, participation included more than 1,500 students and job-seekers, hundreds of public and private employers, and more than 70 Local Coordinators in 32 states plus Washington, D.C. 2004 had 9,000 mentees participating in every state plus Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and 14 other countries, 250 Local Coordinators, and more than 2,500 employer mentors.

For many of us, having a positive role model may have meant the difference between pursuing our full potential or merely wishing we had done so. Remember how you were influenced by a special person who made a difference in your life, possibly not even realizing the impact he or she has had on you? You now have that opportunity to make that kind of difference by becoming a Workplace Mentor for a day. Being a mentor offers the chance for you to help students and job seekers with disabilities expand their horizons, solidify career goals and learn from a practical perspective what life is like on the job.

For more information on Central New York  Disability Mentoring Day Consortium, please e-mail info@disabilitymentoringday.org.