Every morning, Devan Jones spends 40 minutes getting to work. She’s not complaining about the drive and is excited to get there. Devan was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis before she turned two. “Living with a disability has not always been easy,” she says, “but it has taught me to be strong, determined, and independent.” She built that determination with her mother, Donna, who has been her biggest supporter. From taking her to doctor’s appointments and making sure she had what she needed at school to making sure she was never treated differently, Donna was always there to help her move forward. “She’s always been there for me,” Devan said. “Mom would say I’m brave. I don’t pull myself back, and my mom is proud of that.”
Devan works as an Alarm Monitor at the Ft. Benning E-911 Dispatch Services near Columbus, Georgia, and has been with Bobby Dodd Institute (BDI) for four years. She makes the 40-minute drive to work because she genuinely enjoys her job and the people around her. When she arrives, she knows she is in a place where she feels heard and understood.
This week, Devan took a much longer trip – to Washington, D.C., where she attended the Grassroots Advocacy Conference for the first time. Self-advocates from across the country gathered to meet with members of Congress and share their stories directly with the people who write the policies shaping their careers. Her mom, Donna, made the trip with her.
Devan used the opportunity to advocate for more and better employment opportunities for people with disabilities. Her hopes for herself are just as direct. She wants to keep working, keep moving up because she genuinely enjoys her job, keep providing for her family, keep the home she and her husband worked to buy, and keep raising her children. Her hope for the disability community goes further. “The people I’ve met are really driven, loyal, and committed to working every day and doing their best,” she said. “More opportunity and better wages, this is what I’m advocating for in D.C.”
Kylie Moore, a Sr. Coordinator, Special Projects and Communications at BDI, joined virtually from Georgia, co-presenting with Rick Sebastian of The Kennedy Collective in Connecticut. BDI’s Vice President of Development and Community relations, Todd Hermon, is in D.C. along with Devan. He put Devan’s story in a larger context: “One can’t fully grasp the contribution that the 40,000-plus AbilityOne employees make daily to the country’s infrastructure until you hear their stories. Each one, like Devan’s, is a personal account of resilience and desire meeting opportunity. It was the norm to hear the numbers 12, 32, 36, 41, when each person with a disability shared their years of employment through the AbilityOne program. Custodial, contact center, IT, manufacturing, landscaping, logistics. So many industries represented. I feel incredibly fortunate to join this backbone of our nation as we meet with legislators over the next two days.”
Devan’s 40-minute commute and four years at the Ft. Benning call center are just one example of what AbilityOne employees contribute every day. Across the country, tens of thousands of people with disabilities work in nearly every industry, with many building careers that span decades.
