Celebrating Value and Talent with Advancing Employment

This October marks the 81st anniversary of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), an annual celebration of the positive impact of people with disabilities in the American workforce. The theme for NDEAM 2026 is “Celebrating Value and Talent.” In Georgia, Advancing Employment is leading NDEAM celebration events.  

Advancing Employment is Georgia’s training and technical assistance center for best practices in employment supports. It works to create and improve employment supports and systems in Georgia so workers with disabilities can find and keep jobs in inclusive workplaces. Advancing Employment supports job seekers with disabilities, employment service providers, and businesses. This helps to make inclusive employment a reality across Georgia. The program is part of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Center on Human Development and Disability. It is one of UGA’s oldest continuously funded federal programs.

The Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD) is driven by its Five Year Strategic Plan goals to improve services and supports for people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities (I/DD). The Council, charged with creating systems change for individuals with developmental disabilities and family members, will work through various advocacy and capacity building activities to build a more interdependent, self-sufficient, and integrated and included disability community across Georgia.

This project was supported, in part by grant number 2001GASCDD-03, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy.