JANUARY 2024  mentoring month   

 

Mentoring programs have long proven to benefit various youth, employment and small business owners. At the same time mentors help many pursue a better life through self-employment and small business ownership. Current small business mentoring programs focus on neurotypical minority-owned, women-owned and veteran-owned small businesses. But upon closer inspection you recognize only service disabled business ownership data is tracked by the SBA. All other disability categories are omitted. Why?

 

The disability unemployment rate is double that of those without a disability. Cognition is the leading category of disability and includes neurodiverse conditions like ADHD, Autism and others. Data also shows over 80% of the neurodivergent are under or unemployed. Under and unemployment are key metrics triggering government healthcare and other benefits. Perhaps this explains why the DOL reports average disability unemployment rates instead of the rate for each of the 6 categories tracked by the CDC?

 

Small Business Economic Profile CO (sba.gov)

Disability and Health Overview | CDC

 

 

Coffee with a Cause  january 2024    

 

The SBA reports 2 out of 3 jobs or 66% of all jobs created over the last 25 years were generated by small businesses. Recent data indicates 8 out of 10 or 80% of all small businesses in Colorado report having no employees. This means 52.5% of all jobs created are a sole proprietor or self-employment model. Schedule flexibility and higher income levels unlock private plan options available on the insurance exchange increasing individual options and diverting government enrollment.

 

Neurodivergent, disabled and family caregiver owned small businesses may appear like other businesses on the surface, but they have very different motivations and mentoring needs. At the same time they provide very different but necessary benefits to individuals, communities and economies. Although the Colorado Disparity Study reported only 3 cents of every dollar allocated to disability-owned businesses reaches them... so far nothing is being done to close these documented mentoring gaps and economic disparities.

 

State of Colorado Disparity Study | OSC

Disability & Health U.S. State Profile Data: Colorado | CDC

 

 

Coffee with a Cause  january 2024  

 

Access to healthcare is a systemic barrier directly related to unequal access to meaningful employment and health insurance. Many people living with disability face employment discrimination and have difficulty accessing full-time employment. Those who do work often only obtain part time and/or temporary work which does not usually include access to health care benefits. People with disabilities are nearly 3X as likely to live in poverty, and earn a median income one-third less than those who do not have a disability.

 

Disability IN data reveals disability owned businesses employ 10X the employees with disabilities compared to non-disability owned firms. SBA data also shows next to homeownership small business ownership is the second best path to build wealth. Disability benefits from government agencies do not provide enough funding to live independently or in assisted living. Small business ownership helps the neurodivergent, disabled and family caregivers have a path to homeownership and health insurance options while promoting independent living and decreasing long-term benefit costs.

 

Remember a balanced approach uses verified data to identify problems and to propose actionable solutions. Only those willing to have difficult conversations can solve difficult problems. The first step to solving any problem is accepting the data indicating a problem... not blaming the messenger or method of delivery.

 

So join us for Coffee with a Cause and let's keep the conversation going each month with more data and actionable real life solutions!