Connections and partnerships have been consistent themes across the years at HDI, and those are reflected again in some of 2024’s most notable achievements.
This year, Deputy Director Johnny Collett’s picks for HDI’s notable achievements had a secondary unifying theme – employment. All of the achievements Collett highlighted had something to do with helping people with disabilities enter and stay in the workforce. And that, Collett noted, is important, as the employment rate for people with disabilities is a significant issue in Kentucky.
“One in four Americans has a disability and in Kentucky, it’s more than one in three (37%), Collett said. “It’s a large demographic group both in the nation and in Kentucky. At the same time, we have one of the lowest rates of people with disabilities in the workforce. We’ve got a 40 percent employment rate gap between people with and without disabilities.”
With that in mind, it’s encouraging that HDI had a strong working relationship with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce this year, one which led to multiple events highlighting disability and employment.
The first, the Inclusive Workforce Summit, which was hosted by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, brought together multiple community organizations with a focus on how to hire, reach, and retain a diverse workforce. HDI was pleased, through its Retain Kentucky project, to be a presenting sponsor of the event.
“We (HDI) worked with the chamber and others to craft an agenda focused on engaging the talent of Kentuckians with disabilities in the workforce. A great benefit is that employers recognized this as an event that was sanctioned, supported, and encouraged by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce,” Collett said.
Similarly, HDI worked with the Kentucky Chamber to provide a unique “academy” event specifically focused on disability. While the Disability Hiring Academy was held in early 2025, much of the planning for it happened in 2024. This event is part of a series of hiring academies held by the Chamber.
“These are three-day events where the chamber brings in employers from across the state to hear from content experts,” Collett said. “Existing Chamber Academies (Military Hiring Academy and Fair Chance Hiring Academy) have been very successful, and the chamber expressed interest in working closely with us (HDI) to add a hiring academy this year focused on disability. We were thrilled about that.”
The final achievement Collett highlighted was HDI’s participation in a $40 million grant project with Shaping Our Appalachian Region’s (SOAR) Recompete Pilot Program. HDI’s Evaluation Team was tapped to work with this project, which seeks to help boost local efforts to create jobs for people in eastern Kentucky who have struggled to find employment.
“This is going to be important work in Kentucky and certainly across these 12 eastern Kentucky counties,” Collett said. “To be able to evaluate how everyone is working together to get folks back at work and into jobs that are of interest to them, to skill them up for those jobs…this federal investment of $40 million is significant for our state. And we’re glad to be a part of that.”
These events not only have a significant impact on people across the state, but highlight a part of what makes HDI special. As an organization that’s focused on disability in particular, it has partnerships with a number of disability-focused groups in the state, but has also gone beyond that in many cases. HDI will continue to be committed to connection and partnership, guided by the lived experiences of people with disabilities, to help ensure that no one is left behind in Kentucky’s workforce.
“We have partnerships with every major disability organization in Kentucky and across the nation and we have partnerships with every major workforce organization and agency in Kentucky,” Collett said. “Those partnerships are growing, I think, because we are uniquely positioned as the University Center on Disability to bring needed experience and expertise.”
