OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma City resident Renee Sansom Briscoe successfully completed a four-month-long certification program on how to create mentoring programs, activities, and events that are inclusive to youth, volunteers, and staff with disabilities.
This certification was run by the National Disability Mentoring Coalition – an initiative of Partners for Youth with Disabilities (PYD) – in collaboration with MENTOR. The 2022 cohort was the second time this certification has been offered, and it featured participants from 55 unique mentoring organizations across 18 different states.
“We are thrilled to recognize the accomplishments of our certification cohort,” said Kristin Humphrey, the NDMC Program Manager and one of the lead facilitators of the certification. “Each participating organization created a detailed Inclusion Action Plan, and they have all made huge strides in making their mentoring program more inclusive of people with disabilities. This certification is an important step for the mentoring field to take to become more inclusive and accessible.”
To complete their certification, Briscoe completed over 20 hours of online coursework, contributed to weekly discussion posts, and attended live webinars and cohort convenings, while also creating a plan to improve the disability inclusion practices in their organization. Briscoe was one of the people representing 21 organizations that completed their full certification.
Briscoe received training in a wide range of topics: the various models and definitions of disability; ableism and inclusion; disability rights and the ADA; Universal Design; inclusive language and communication; inclusive marketing and outreach practices; and more.
She is the transition coordinator at the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services. Briscoe oversees DRS’ Transition activities, contracts, and programs. She collaborates and fosters relationships across the state with schools, partner agencies, career techs, universities, employees, Pre-Employment Transition Services specialists, different disability groups and many different councils.
“I’m so proud of Renee for accepting the opportunity of this mentor certification,” DRS Executive Director Melinda Fruendt said. “There are never enough mentors for youth disabilities. This is another tool in her skill set for serving youth.”
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