By John Tozzi, Venessa Wong, and Nick Leiber

Pushing for Profits and Social Impact

The social enterprise—a sustainable business that creates social or environmental value alongside profit—is no longer a niche concept. Social entrepreneurs inhabit nearly every sector of the economy, from banking and insurance to energy and manufacturing. That breadth is evident in Bloomberg Businessweek‘s second annual U.S. roundup of promising social entrepreneurs. The companies profiled here were selected from more than 200 candidates suggested earlier this year by Businessweek.com readers. They range from fresh startups to established, multimillion-dollar enterprises. All share a commitment to using business to create a broader benefit. Flip through this slide show to read profiles of each, then vote for the one you consider most promising at the end of the slide show. Voting ends on June 25. We’ll announce the top 5 vote-getters on the Small Business channel on June 29.

Read more at Bloomberg Business Week

Do you walk on eggshells around people with chronic illness or disabilities? If so, you are not alone.

Maybe you’re a little uncomfortable — you don’t know quite what to say and don’t want to stick your foot in your mouth. You want to ask questions but don’t want to pry. In our “politically correct” world, eggshells are all over the place.

Most literature about chronic illness informs us that stress can aggravate symptoms and cause relapses, and a lot of us can attest to that fact. Avoiding undue stress is a positive thing. However, we cannot divorce ourselves from planet earth and the reality of every day life. Taking the concept of avoiding stress too far, especially within the family, can result in pent-up resentment by all concerned.

Most people who have a chronic illness or disability are functioning members of society and integral members of family life. Rather than avoiding that person or avoiding the problem altogether, why not approach them as you would anybody else?

Adults with chronic illness or disabilities want… and need… to be included in important issues, even potentially negative ones. Family and friends, or even co-workers who overprotect can end up causing more harm than good, adding to their own stress levels in the process. It is a vicious cycle that raises tensions and prevents functional problem solving. Good intentions don’t always equal good outcome. Life is fraught with highs and lows and it is folly to try to protect someone from life itself.

Perhaps you are the one with a chronic illness or disability, going out of your way to paint a rosy picture and keep your problems to yourself. We all want to put our best foot forward and, unquestionably, that’s as it should be. But taken to the extreme, it sends the wrong message and can lead to misunderstandings and unexpressed anger. Clearing the air about problems as they arise will ease tension in the long run.

Eggshells be damned. No more hiding. Rather than allowing chronic illness or disability come between you, make a pact to face it honestly and speak freely. Empowerment is gained through being part of the solution rather than part of the problem. We’re all just people.

Writer Ann Pietrangelo embraces the concept of personal responsibility for health and wellness. As a person living with multiple sclerosis, she combines a healthy lifestyle and education with modern medicine, and seeks to provide information and support to others. She is a regular contributor to Care2.com’s Reform Health Policy blog in Causes. Follow on Twitter @AnnPietrangelo.

One of the most frustrating aspects of life with chronic illness is the constant state of flux. It is true of all types of multiple sclerosis, and relapsing/remitting MS certainly lives up to the name.

The fact that many of these on-again off-again symptoms are invisible to observers makes it a particularly difficult series of emotional adjustments, especially if you are prone to worry about what other people think.

It’s hard to be taken seriously when people see you looking the very picture of health one day and claiming to be the opposite the next. It probably doesn’t help their perceptions when we go to great lengths to hide the truth.

We hear a lot about maintaining a positive attitude in the face of adversity, and most of us work at keeping our complaints to a minimum and putting on our best face for all the world to see. Most of the time this works in our own favor, but occasionally the challenges of life with chronic illness loom so large as to become overwhelming.

Since receiving the diagnosis of relapsing/remitting MS in early 2004 I have, for the most part, managed to have more positive days than not. The not-so-positive days have been largely hidden from view, revealed only to a few friends and the closest of family members. Let’s face it, nobody wants to be considered a complainer.

I don’t want to be seen in a negative light, but as a positive person who lends kinship and support to others through my writing on the subject of MS and chronic illness. On the other hand, the bad days we all experience cannot be avoided. Addressing them openly and honestly doesn’t make me a negative person; it makes me human.

That was my thought process recently when I tentatively posted brief snippets about my latest MS relapse on Facebook and Twitter. Not complaints and not written in anger, they were instead brief and honest snapshots from a life altered by MS.

The response took me by surprise. Friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers sent me emails of support and understanding. Those who also live with MS or other chronic illness were, of course, able to see beyond the few words I’d written — I had struck a nerve. As far as I could tell, no one saw it as complaining or that I was passing on negativity. It was taken for nothing more than the truth that it was.

I have no less faith in the power of a positive outlook on life, but more faith in the people around me to accept the hard truth once in awhile. I’m not saying that anyone needs a play-by-play of our lives any more than we need one of theirs. What and how much of ourselves we choose to share is very much a matter of personal preference.

In a previous article on the topic of positive thinking, I wrote, “I wonder if, by keeping my bad moments private, I have contributed to the pressure to keep up appearances and if by putting my best face forward, I’ve given the impression that I’m always full of sunshine and roses… let it be known now… I have moments when no matter how hard I try, I cannot fight the frustration. So I acknowledge it, deal with it, and purge it. It’s not particularly pleasant, so I generally get myself back on track rather quickly. It is what it is.”

I would like to add something more to that statement: There is no need to keep these feelings to yourself. It is possible to share the bad as well as the good and to do it without wallowing or complaining. It is simply stating the facts of life. If they can’t handle it, that’s not your problem, but people just might surprise you.

Writer Ann Pietrangelo embraces the concept of personal responsibility for health and wellness. As a person living with multiple sclerosis, she combines a healthy lifestyle and education with modern medicine, and seeks to provide information and support to others. She is a regular contributor to Care2.com’s Reform Health Policy blog in Causes. Follow on Twitter @AnnPietrangelo.

October is Disability Employment Awareness Month. Let’s look at blogs out there by women about disability and work! Patricia E. Bauer hits right on target as usual: President urges employers to welcome workers with disabilities. I’m all for that. Here’s a quote from President Obama’s Proclamation:

In the past half-century, we have made great strides toward providing equal employment opportunities in America, but much work remains to be done. As part of that continuing effort, we must seek to provide oppIortunities for individuals with disabilities. Only then can Americans with disabilities achieve full participation in the workforce and reach the height of their ambition.

My Administration is committed to promoting positive change for every American, including those with disabilities. The Federal Government and its contractors can lead the way by implementing effective employment policies and practices that increase opportunities and help workers achieve their full potential. Across this country, millions of people with disabilities are working or want to work. We must ensure they have access to the support and services they need to succeed.

Right on. Well, how do we get to that culture of fostering and encouraging employment opportunities? What’s blocking people with disabilities right now from having jobs?

How about all the disabled people I know who are working incredibly hard. Doing fantastic, great work.

Who’s paying them? Often, no one. I’m a wheelchair user and have a full time job. Universally, people are surprised to hear that, even people I know as colleagues in social media.

As I wrote and deleted drafts of this post — mostly angry, despairing, bitter , soul-searching rants — I asked myself, "Who do I know who’s disabled, and has a job?"

Not a lot. I know few people, mostly online. My friend Haddayr, a advertising copywriter and science fiction author. Denise, for example, from Dreamwidth. Rivka from Respectful of Otters. Katja Stokley from Broken Clay. Mel Chua. They’re bloggers and writers who represent as well as doing their day jobs. And people I don’t know, but hope to meet someday, like Laura Hershey and Kathleen Martinez and Simi Linton.

But who do I know who’s doing fantastic work? I can name so many.

We can’t work, often, because working risks our benefits that are essential to survival. Working denies us health care. We can’t own more than $2000 of assets, or we don’t get Medicare or Social Security benefits. We are trapped in a cycle of poverty. Programs that promise to help or employ end up tickets to exploitation. So we end up working for free.

I look at this grant to Cornell University and you know what? Great. But I’m not holding my breath. They just got 1.6 million dollars. How much of that is going to actually go into the pockets of people with disabilities? NOTHING ABOUT US, WITHOUT US. I hope they hire some people with disabilities, with that grant, and that, when they interview disabled people about their actual experiences working, that they pay them for their time.

You want to know what would help people with disabilities get jobs? How about asking them what they think would help?

My message back to President Obama is to look for some of the people doing amazing work. Then, ask why they’re not being paid. And pay them. Change the policies of health care and benefits so they can be paid without risking their lives or their already precarious ability to live independently.

Hire them. Don’t exploit their labor.

If you can’t hire them without screwing up their benefits and health care? Get in there and navigate the maze of policy and bureaucracy that blocks them. How about this radical idea. Hire people part time, and give them insurance. Enable all people at your company to live a life in balance that doesn’t drive their health into the ground.

Better yet, you as a company, as an employer, can say, "We want everyone in this country to have the health care they need to survive day to day, without it being tied to their employment."

Here are some of the people who are not just working, but who are great writers and thus, advocates who benefits all of us with disabilities. They mean a lot to me and have made a huge difference in my life. The solidarity I’ve found in their keeps me going in my own daily work.

Wheelie Catholic, advocate, thinker on human rights and social justice, and a fantastic writer.

Glenda Watson Hyatt from Do It Myself blog.

Jen Cole and Alejandra Ospina who run GimpGirl, an organization with a 15-year history, for women with disabilities.

Wheelchair Dancer writes about performance and physically integrated dance.

UberGeekChick, who does a podcast about computer programming and self-expression, is an open source contributor, and who takes Twittering to great heights.

CripChick, a fierce outspoken activist and talented writer!

Eva from The Deal with Disability who shares her point of view of how people see her in daily life and the assumptions they make.

FridaWrites who argues beautifully for universal design, access, and human rights.

Book Girl from Falling off my Pedestal.

Nick Dupree who is an advocate for Community Choice.

Barriers, Bridges, and Books talks about some of the complexities behind work, life, and disability. Now for example, if you have a disability , you may need some extra health care. But to get Medicare, you cannot own more then $2000 in assets. This is part of what traps people with disabilities into a cycle of poverty.

In Falling, Terri describes her fears for her teenage daughter’s future.

Gayle DeVilbiss ‘s video of her story of misdiagnosis, chemo, and then being denied Social Security benefits, on Disability Information and Resources blog.

Wheelie Catholic reports on the Sears discrimination case.

Katharine Ganly on Global Voices Online talks about people with disabilities trying to survive, get an education, and work in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Read on into a great analysis, in Disability and Employment in Argentina: The Right to Be Exploited?

Being disabled, physically, may mean being deaf, having mobility impairments, being blind, being exhausted or in pain, having a chronic illness or mental illness, and so on. Those are differences or impairments. Personally I use the word disability as a cultural and political affiliation. But being "disabled" doesn’t mean we can’t work. It means we might need to work differently. And it means we have a harder time defending our own rights and asking for accommodations.

What can you do as employer?

- Don’t make assumptions. Ask what you can do, and mean it. Don’t then subject your disabled employee to a backlash.

- Provide deep information. A map of your office complex with elevation changes, level or ramped paths and handrails marked, elevators, bathrooms, and parking. That will be useful, and appreciated, by more people than you would predict. We might have to plan. We might have limited energy. Deep access information gives people what they need to make informed decisions.

- Work out technological solutions. Telecommuting!

- Try to educate yourself. Read some blogs, some books, and so on. I’m a little skeptical of diversity training. I recommend the WisCon feminist science fiction convention‘s guide to disability access at events. It applies to many physical environments and events.

- Be flexible. You know what helps me most – beside telecommuting half the week – in my work at BlogHer? This:

A couch! Thank you, BlogHer, for the glorious, amazing, couch in my cube. And for not minding too much when I’m lying on the couch on my back, computer on my stomach, my back and my leg experiencing awesome pain relief.

- Be inclusive socially. Plan your office social time with everyone in mind. (I swear, many places, they might as well have had special events underwater. Oh, there’s no ramp and you just realized and "wouldn’t mind carrying me up the stairs"? Thanks for the pain and loss of human dignity. Now let’s party. Or get to work. Or now that I’m completely pissed off and discombobulated, how about I give an hour long public speech.)

- Don’t be a jerk. I mean this nicely. Joking about a person’s disability is rarely cool. Pressure is on that person to get along, to be a supercrip, to show they can "do it all" and can tolerate whatever gets thrown at them.

- Actually help people with their paperwork situations. Defend your employees. Help them fight their fights just as you might help your employee from outside your country with a visa situation.

Thanks for listening.

What do you think about my suggestions for employers? Do you have thoughts as a person with a disability or impairment? What work do you do? Do you get paid? Are you self-employed?

Or, as a friend, family member, ally, co-worker, or employer of a PWD, what in your opinion could be helpful to remove obstacles, and to decrease the huge unemployment rate for people with disabilities? We have a lot of moms of kids with special needs here on BlogHer and in the network. I would challenge all of you in particular to radicalize politically beyond support groups or cures, to connect with adults with disabilities who are advocating for social change, to look ahead to the future.

Originally published at BlogHer.

It is the usual reminder, just a little firmer than in the past. This week, as it has done every couple of years, New York City Transit is starting an advertising campaign asking New Yorkers to remember to “please offer a seat” to disabled passengers on buses and subways.

There was a time — who knows if it really existed — when such civility was assumed. However, the new posters on subways and buses give riders an extra prod: “It’s not only polite, it’s the law.”

“It’s the first time we’ve really stressed this,” said Paul J. Fleuranges, vice president for corporate communications at New York City Transit, the largest arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Those who decline to give up a seat on request face up to a $50 fine, he said. (The new campaign also warns that “not all disabilities are visible.”)

As long as there has been public transportation, there has been grumbling about healthy young men taking a load off while the pregnant, the old and the infirm stand by.

Recently, some bloggers have chronicled their own troubles securing a seat while injured or pregnant.

Read the rest…

Coming up in a month (June 22, 2009) is the 10th anniversary of the Olmstead decision, declaring that people with disabilities have a right to live in the community and not in nursing homes and other institutions. It is a great opportunity for people with disabilities to come together to make sure that the dream of Olmstead becomes a reality! Given the talk of health care reform in Washington DC, and concern about whether or not President Obama and the federal government will make sure that community-based choices are included, publicizing the Olmstead anniversary is more important than ever.

Just like the disability community held events around the country for Obama’s inauguration or for the introduction of the Community Choices Act, we’d like to coordinate events nationwide for the Olmstead anniversary. There are a bunch of events you could do, and we want to help you make it happen!
*** Take Action ***

1) Whether you are a group or an individual, pick one of the following events you think you can do.
2) Email disabilitymovement@gmail.com to tell us what you’d like to do and what kind of materials or other help you need.
3) Pick 1-2 new forms of outreach in the list below, so that you can bring in new people.
4) Hold your event and have fun with it!

Possible events:

• Call or visit your district’s members of Congress, or the local Health & Human Services office; ask what they’re going to do to implement Olmstead
• Hold a press conference in front of a nursing home or other institution
• Get a group of people to go visit a nursing home — tell the nursing home that you’d like to bring cookies and visit with people
• Create a film of people talking about wanting to stay out of nursing homes and other institutions; or if we can find one that exists, show a film!
• Pass out flyers at a grocery store, shopping mall, or other busy site, talking to people about Olmstead and institutions, maybe including some kind of survey about thoughts on living in a nursing home
• * Have a rally at HHS office, state building, or possibly a nursing home (this last can be tricky)
• Have a caravan to different sites above
• Deliver a signed copy of the AAPD petition to local Congressional offices, maybe deliver them with some kind of “Implement Olmstead” cookies.
• Have an event and invite legislators to come and talk about independence for people with disabilities
• Get people together to talk about Olmstead (educate ourselves). Provide snacks, have everyone write a letter and sign the AAPD petition. You could also get people together and then go out before or after for any of these other suggestions.

Ideas for outreach:

• Talk to leadership at churches in your area, and get someone to make an announcement, pass out flyers, etc.
• Go to a health clinic or hospital, and ask people to sign a petition (so you can get contact information) and pass out flyers
• Knock on doors at housing developments for people with disabilities
• Post on facebook and blogs
• Go to Vocational Rehab offices, ask them to talk to clients, pass out flyers
• Go to your local CIL, Developmental Disability Council, etc.

THANK YOU!

Jessica Lehman & the Justice for All Action Network Organizing Workgroup

The series features 6 webcasts with topics such as “Inclusive Entreprenuership and “Three Models of Self-Employment”, it looks to be an interesting and informative  webcast series for those of us who are self-employed or who are interested in self-employment for people with chronic and disabling conditions.

START-UP / USA  is a partnership between Virginia Commonwealth University and Griffin-Hammis and Associates, LLC providing technical assistance and disseminating resources nationally to individuals interested in pursuing self-employment. This includes the live web cast series with successful entrepreneurs who share their secrets for success.

RRTC’s  mission is “to study those supports that are most effective for assisting individuals with disabilities maintain employment and advance their careers. The primary stakeholders for this project are persons with disabilities, with an emphasis on those who are unemployed, underemployed or at risk of losing employment”.

You can register online for the series or contact Teri Blankenship at tcblanke@vcu.edu to learn more about scholarships for people with disabilities who would like to participate in the webcast series.

Staying productive is one of those skills no one teaches you in school but you have to learn. It’s especially important if you’re self-employed or a telecommuter because you usually find yourself performing many different jobs, each with their own set of tasks, during the course of a single day. It doesn’t matter how smart you are if you can’t organize information well enough to take it in. And it doesn’t matter how skilled you are if procrastination keeps you from getting your work done.

Many of us are prey to time-wasters that steal time we could be using much more productively. What are your time-bandits? Do you spend too much time ‘Web surfing, reading email, or doing personal stuff? Twittering?

Here are 10 tips that can help you increase your productivity and stay calm, cool and collected:

1. Make it easy to get started. Often we don’t have issues with finishing projects, we have issues starting them. I try to break own my projects into what Sark calls Micro-Movements, small nuggets of action toward the completion of a goal, so I am not overwhelmed by them.
2. Do the most important thing first. When I sit down at my desk in the morning, before I check e-mail, I work for an hour on the most important thing on my to-do list. I got this idea from Gina Trapani of Lifehacker. What I found was that even if I don’t get the whole thing done in an hour, I usually to go back to it once I’ve started it.
3. Prioritize and organize the night before. I have also found doing the most important thing first thing in the morning works best if I prioritize and organize the night before so when I sit down at my desk in the morning I know what my most important task of the day is. Some people do this as soon as they are done with work for the day. I generally take 20 to 30 minutes before bedtime to prioritize my To-Do list, check my calendar for events I need to attend or appointments I need to go to.
4. Check your email on a schedule. It’s just not time effective to read and answer every email as it arrives. Just because someone can contact you immediately doesn’t mean that you have to respond to them immediately. Check your e-mail on a schedule and prioritize the responses. During work hours, my clients’ e-mail tend to get priority. After business hours, other people and things get my attention first. Most people want a predictable response, not an immediate one so as long as people know how long to expect an answer to take, and they know how to reach you in an emergency, you can answer most types of email just a few times a day.
5. Don’t leave email sitting in your inbox. The capability to quickly process information and transform it into action is one of the most emergent skills a self-employed professional can have. I organize email in file folders and use G-mail to archive all my important e-mails. If the message needsmore thought, I move it to my to-do list; if it’s for reference or to read , I either print it out or save the URL and add it to my To-Do list; if it’s a meeting or an appointment, I move it to my calendar . Take action on an email as soon as you read it.
6. Keep web site addresses organized. You can use book marking services like del.icio.us or StumbleUpon to keep track of web sites. Instead of having random notes about places you want to check out, places you want to keep as a reference, etc., you can save them all in one place, and you can search and share your list easily.If you use Firefox, you can also use their handy tool bar to create links to the sites you use most often either with a button or using bookmarks.
7. Know when you work best. Because I telecommunute, I can pretty much work any time of day or night. But I try to schedule things so that I work on the most important things between the hours of 11AM and 3PM when I am the most productive. I also often work in the evening after dinner for a few hours, depending on my energy level. Everybody has a “best time”. You can figure out yours by monitoring your productivity over a period of time. Then manage your schedule to keep your best time free for your most important work.
8. Don’t waste time waiting. From client meetings to waiting for a bus, it’s impossible to avoid waiting for someone or something. But I don’t just sit there and twiddle my thumbs. I always have something with me to do such as something I need to read, a phone call that needs to made, or a small bound book in which I write new tasks, make notes or organize work for the following day. Technology also makes it easy to work wherever you are too; your cell phone ,
   laptop or netbook will help you stay connected.
9. Organize your to-do list every day. If you don’t know what you should be doing, how can you manage your time to do it? Some people like writing this list out by hand because it shows commitment to each item if you are willing to rewrite it each day until it gets done. Other people like software that can slice and dice their To-Do list into manageable, relevant clusters. For example, I use Tasktoy because it shows me only my tasks for a specific client or project and I can access it from anywhere as long as I have Internet access. It’s also free. You can get Tasktoy here. I use both methods. I flesh out my tasks by hand and then add them to Tasktoy.
10. It’s okay to be a little pokey. Remember that a productive manager actually responds to some things more slowly. For example, someone who is doing the highest priority task is probably not answering incoming email while they’re doing it. Typically in any day, there are more than a few tasks more important than processing email. Intuitively, we all know this. What we need to do now is recognize that processing work (evaluating what’s come in, what’s going out and how to handle it) and planning work are also critical tasks.

No matter how organized we are, there are still always only 24 hours in a day. Time doesn’t change. All we can actually do is manage ourselves and what we do with the time that we have.

RRTC’s  mission is “to study those supports that are most effective for assisting individuals with disabilities maintain employment and advance their careers. The primary stakeholders for this project are persons with disabilities, with an emphasis on those who are unemployed, underemployed or at risk of losing employment”.