Business Partnership Network
Business leaders interested in saving time and money while expanding their business opportunities and customer base are invited to join the Vocational Rehabilitation Business Partnership Network (VRBPN).
The network is a joint effort of public and private employers and the S.C. Vocational Rehabilitation Department.
The VRBPN’s mission is to provide leadership in disability employment awareness. Its goals are to introduce businesses to the state’s most significant employment resource, highlight the advantages of hiring people with disabilities and dispel the myths surrounding the word “disability.”
It is a forum for addressing disability-related issues in the workplace.
Membership in the VRBPN can help employers:
- Improve customer service and expand their customer base to include more people with disabilities, their families and friends.
- Identify people with disablities ready for employment.
- Return injured workers to the workplace.
- Access information on low-tech and low-cost job accommodations.
- Understand ADA compliance; i.e., interviewing techniques.
- Share information and network with other employers.
Network Leaders
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina is the network’s lead company. Charter business members include Lowe’s, Nestlé, Wachovia, Sodexho, Westinghouse Savannah River Site, Extended Stay Hotels Inc., and the University of South Carolina.
Members receive:
- Quarterly newsletters.
- Education about resources and financial incentives available to employers.
- Strategies for accommodating and retaining employees with disabilities.
- Training on disabilities in the workplace.
For more information
Contact Brenda Williams, SCVRD liaison for the Business Partnership Network. E-mail her at bwilliams@scvrd.state.sc.us or call (803) 896-6582.