2024 Advocacy & Awareness

It was a banner year for informing the public about what we do, both across the U.S. and internationally!

NIB's Heard & Empowered Podcast

First episode launched in November 2023

NIB's Heard & Empowered podcast shares job and career insights, inspiration, and insider tips for people who are blind, employers, educators, vocational trainers, policymakers, innovators, and advocates for change.

40 Episodes to choose from!

Episodes feature employees from NIB, NSITE, associated nonprofit agencies, and external partners.

3,871 unique downloads
Listeners in 38 countries

Advocacy in Action

NIB Welcomed 14 new Advocates for Leadership and Employment

Front row, from left: Katy Todd, The Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc.; Mia Weaver-Ison, Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired; Christy Abel Taylor, Alabama Industries for the Blind; Fayez Kotet, Virginia Industries for the Blind; Norman Demolle, Lighthouse Louisiana; Jeff Young with guide dog Shayne, Industries for the Blind and Visually Impaired; and Junior Matia Ah-Siu, The Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc. Back row: Alexis Flores, LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired San Francisco; Greg Herron, Bosma Enterprises; Wesley Hillman, VisionCorps; Rebekah Grieb, Alphapointe; Horace Grayson, Lighthouse Louisiana; and Zachary Shifflett, Virginia Industries for the Blind. Not pictured: Claire Walker, Beacon Lighthouse.

100+

Advocates trained to represent their agencies
in the local community and on Capitol Hill since 2012

120 Agency meetings with House and Senate offices

From left: Soraya Correa, NIB president and CEO; Mindy Stevenson, chief financial officer of NewView Oklahoma; Lauren Branch, president and CEO of NewView Oklahoma; U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma; and Rick Webster, NIB vice president for public policy.

2024 Government Relations Campaign: Championing Employment Growth

This year, NIB sought to support the business growth of the AbilityOne Program® through a 1% Department of Defense utilization goal and other pro-growth messaging. This campaign also positioned NIB and the National Association for the Employment of People Who Are Blind (NAEPB) as the subject matter experts for blind employment, educating decision-makers and influencers about the AbilityOne Program and the jobs created by NIB and its associated nonprofit agencies.

New Website Users

5,061

Find-an-Agency Clicks

↑30.2%

Video Views

33,000+

Email Recipients

12,000/month

Advocacy-Focused Podcast Episodes

Learn More About the 2024 NIB Government Relations Campaign

[Background music plays]

The NIB logo appears on the screen with the words Championing Employment Growth.

Danny Kelly is a white male with brown hair wearing a plaid shirt and a tan sport coat. He sits in front of a white banner with the logo for the Heard & Empowered podcast and speaks into a microphone. White text reads Danny Kelly, President and CEO, IFB Solutions, NIB Associated Nonprofit Agency.

The video alternates between scenes of Danny speaking into a microphone, scenes from the 2024 Public Policy Forum of people in meetings or walking near the U.S. Capitol, and videos of men and women working in offices and on manufacturing floors.

Voice Over:

My name is Danny Kelly, president and CEO of IFB Solutions in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. IFB Solutions is a not-for-profit organization that generates employment opportunities for people who are blind. I have retinitis pigmentosa – I'm the third generation in my family with that eye condition. My son, 14, freshman in high school, has the same inherited eye condition.

Been doing this for 20 years, up on Capitol Hill each and every year. With our agencies in the AbilityOne Program employing over 5,200 people who are blind, it's critical to protect those jobs and find ways to generate more opportunities.

Seven out of 10 Americans who are blind are not working, and we need to put those people to work.

I may be a little biased, but this is probably the best public-private partnership ever created by Congress, because our customers, the Department of Defense, whatever federal agency it might be, have to buy stuff anyway to continue and do their mission critical work. So why not buy from not-for-profit organizations that are employing people who are blind, reducing dependence on other federal assistance programs. So virtually at no cost to the government, they're generating over 5,000 jobs for people who are blind.

Our goal this year is to ask Congress to include legislation that establishes a one percent utilization goal for the Department of Defense to procure more products and services from the AbilityOne Program. We are asking for the Department of Defense, our largest customer, to procure one percent of their total purchases through the AbilityOne Program to drive employment for people who are blind. So right now, we're at about .55 percent, or just a half a percent of DOD procurement.

A one percent goal may sound small, but in the context of a nearly 900-billion-dollar defense budget this year, one percent can make a huge impact.

The screen fades to white and the NIB logo appears with blue text reading: For more information or to amplify our mission, visit nib.org/champion-employment-growth

[Background music ends]