Concepts Communications' Projects Win Seventeen Awards in 2022

Bethesda, MD based communications firm celebrates the end of the year by reflecting on seventeen various recognitions received for advocating for employment policies, practices to be inclusive of people with disabilities.

BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Via many award-winning, national initiatives, Concepts Communications educates employers on ways to include individuals with disabilities in the workforce. During 2022, five of Concepts' projects collectively won 17 awards for public outreach campaigns, website designs, diversity and inclusion efforts, publications and more.

"I am grateful for all the well-deserved recognition these projects are receiving," Concepts' President and CEO Karen Herson remarks. "Our initiatives are staffed by creative, knowledgeable and passionate teams and our success is certainly a joint effort."

The Campaign on Disability Employment (CDE) is an awareness campaign funded by the U. S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) that utilizes PSAs to raise awareness and encourage the public to recognize the value and talent that people with disabilities contribute to the workforce. Concepts managed the promotion and distribution of CDE's "Mental Health at Work: What Can I Do?" PSA, which won three awards, including a dotCOMM Award, Hermes Creative Award and a Muse Creative Award.

ODEP's Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN) is a free resource that provides employers with information and resources to recruit, hire, retain and advance qualified people with disabilities in the workforce. Concepts was a part of efforts to redesign AskEARN.org and this year the new website was recognized for five awards: an AVA Digital Award, Communicator Award, Hermes Creative Award, Vega Digital Award and a MarCom Award.

The Clear2Connect Coalition (C2C) is a group of organizations, including those from the aging and disability community and Veterans Service Organizations, that work together to advocate for the right of Americans with hearing loss to communicate via Internet Protocol Captioned Telephone Services (IP CTS). Concepts was instrumental in forming the Coalition in 2019 and in 2022 C2C won two Communicator Awards and the Hermes Creative Award in recognition of its ongoing advocacy efforts.

ePolicyWorks (ePW) leverages crowdsourcing to inform inclusive workforce policymaking by engaging citizens and stakeholders around advancing employment for people with disabilities. Concepts leads all communication and outreach efforts to increase the efficiency of this participatory policymaking process. This past year ePW received two Vega Digital Awards, a Muse Creative Award and an Hermes Creative award recognizing the initiative's platform for its government-focused diversity and inclusion efforts. Additionally, one ePW public engagement opportunity "Empowering Teens in Their Workplaces" accepted a dotCOMM award for its online, interactive capabilities.

In 2015, at the inception of the unique state-federal collaboration The State Exchange on Employment & Disability (SEED), ODEP tasked Concepts with partnering with organizations that represent state and local policymakers to assist with their adopting and implementing inclusive policies that lead to increased employment opportunities for people with disabilities. This year, the SEED initiative won a Muse Award for its Policy Checklist for a Disability-Inclusive Recovery, which was developed to summarize the findings of SEED's COVID-19 Policy Collaborative for an Inclusive Recovery.

About Concepts Communications:

Based in Bethesda, MD., Concepts Communications is a disability- and woman-owned small communications firm that specializes in public awareness and outreach on disability inclusion, workforce development, communications access and small business. In addition to ODEP and other Department of Labor agencies, Concepts Communications' current and past clients include state vocational rehabilitation agencies and several disability-related nonprofits and advocacy organizations. For more information, visit ConceptsCommunications.com.

Media Contact

Sheryl Rosenberg, Concepts Communications, 240-499-6118, [email protected]

SOURCE Concepts Communications