Sand Springs Resident Receives Commendation from Governor

OKLAHOMA CITY--Sand Springs resident Brenda Young received a commendation from Gov. Brad Henry and Lt. Gov. Jari Askins on October 6 during the Governor’s Disability Employment Awards at the Governor’s Mansion in Oklahoma City. October is national Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Young is usually the first and last employee customers see when they shop at Wal-Mart in Sand Springs. Young has worked at the store for the past six years as an overnight greeter, sales associate and zoner. She has a lot of contact with customers and has built relationships with regular shoppers. Young has received seven pay raises over the space of six years for meeting or exceeding performance expectations on her annual performance reviews. Those pay raises enabled Young to purchase a brand new car so she can drive herself to and from work each day. Since being employed at Wal-Mart, Young has gained so much self confidence that she married James Young, a co-worker. They have been married for four years and she knows that as long as she stays with James, she will always be “Young.”  

“It is employees and businesses like these that have put Oklahoma ahead of every state in the nation at employing people with disabilities,” said Director Howard Hendrick of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.

“For the past three years, Oklahoma has led the nation in assisting people with developmental disabilities to find competitive jobs and become working taxpayers," Hendrick said. “Today, 60 percent of individuals with developmental disabilities served by the OKDHS Developmental Disabilities Services Division participate in supported employment services.”

The Governor’s Disability Employment Awards are co sponsored by Gov. Brad Henry and Lt. Gov. Jari Askins, along with OKDHS/DDSD, the Department of Rehabilitation Services, and the Oklahoma Association of Persons in Supported Employment.

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Editors Note: To see Oklahoma’s ranking as compared to other states in regard to the numbers of persons with developmental disabilities in competitive jobs (supported employment) go to, http://www.statedata.info/ (Link opens in new window). This web site is a project of the Institute for Community Inclusion at UMass Boston, supported in part by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under cooperative agreement with additional support from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education.