I’ve had cerebral palsy since birth. In 1943, I was not expected to walk or talk or go to school. I was headed for a state “institution.” Yet, doctors today call me “high functioning.” I have worked in mainstream business for more than 50 years -- 10 of them at the vice presidential level for what is now Foremost Farms USA and what was, in 1985, a Fortune 500 company. I’m a Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) and have studied and written about disability employment issues, as a second career, since 1993. I’m the author of 14 books in various formats about disability employment and disability awareness and founder of www.cerebral-palsy-career-builders.com, the coaching guide for parents of CP youngsters 7 to 27. More Info
My Hobbies writing, travel, reading.
My inspirations personal-experience stories of others which show the resiliency of human beings and show how much we are all alike.
My message for this community I’ve found that disability, while making life tougher to live, can also, within certain contexts, become an aggregate advantage in the world of work.
And, I’ve concluded that families can’t wait until it’s too late to prepare today’s youngsters with unexpected challenges for finding their own pathways to self-determination, meaningful work and independent living.
The elementary and middle-school grade levels are not too early to start learning about how
disability, when framed with insight from an employer vantage point, can become a competitive edge in the world of work.
That’s especially true today now that every state vocational rehabilitation agency in the U.S. is emphasizing career-readiness and school-to-work transition services for youth with disabilities
Parents, providers, trainers and sponsors: Join me in tapping the inner personal edge that often becomes evident in individuals who have who have learned to live well with a disability. I believe those individuals can apply that edge as productive workplace participants.
See www.cerebral-palsy-career-builders.com/the-inner-personal-edge for quick, easy avenues you can follow to tap the inner personal edge in all of us.
My creative work
7 Transformation Stories: In this transformation book, author Jim Hasse identifies seven career builders parents can use to help their middle school student with cerebral palsy learn how to leverage disability's competitive edge, a key factor in disability development and career readiness.
Jim, a global career development facilitator (GCDF) who has athetoid cerebral palsy, illustrates each of those seven bits of career advice with a transformational story from his own experiences. For each short story, he defines the issue at hand for learning how to live and work well with cerebral palsy, showing how his parents and others helped him personally resolve the situation, and providing a potential path parents can follow as mentors for their own middle school youngster.
Producer Chris Chappell, a C6-7 Quadriplegic, is a dedicated disability advocate. From peer mentoring, career counseling, life-coaching and legislative crusading, Chris has been on the front lines of SCI (Spinal Cord Injury/Paralysis) advocacy for more than 15 years. In addition to his corporate career as Vice President of Investments at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in New York City and Graduate Relations Coordinator at Colorado's Craig Hospital, Chris has developed a successful commercial Voiceover and Audiobook narration business (Dublot, LLC). Chris and his family reside in Littleton, Colorado.
