“Lessons from the Fall of the Iron Curtain (and DCJCC), Monica Lewinsky (and TIP) and Stop Smoking Efforts (and RespectAbilityUSA) –

Unexpected Insights into How We Run Our Foundation and Work L’Tikkun Olum”

Jennifer Laszlo MizrahiCo-founder/director, Mizrahi Family Charitable Fund 1

A + B + C = DHow did I learn about this?- Read heavily on topic- My great aunt, Ella Laszlo Bache-Brummer - Many conferences/trainings on topic- My coach is Marty Linksy, a professor at Harvard

Business School (see http://cambridge-leadership.com/index.php/about_us/staff/linsky)

- Executive Training at Harvard- Site visits, asking questions- No fear of failure. LEARN FROM MISTAKES.

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Theory of change /Performance Metrics

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The Challenge

• Gorbachev was allowing for elections• Pro-Democracy side: not organized• Pro-Democracy side: fragmented• Fear of public that if they voted against Communists there was risk• No money for campaign • No experience with elections• No clear message

Action

• FOCUS the message• Bring in experienced team

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CASE STUDY: Fall of the Berlin Wall/End of FSU

• Perfection is the enemy of the "good enough.“ Good results on a great plan are always faster, more efficient and effective than waiting for perfection on little details. Avoid “analysis-paralysis” on things that don’t matter.

• Work backwards from the finish line with a strong theory of change. Determine the goal you want to achieve, and then work your plan and timeline backwards from your goal.

How to Raise Money for Great Causes!

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Rules to work by

Remember to K.I.S.S. – Keep it Short and Simple

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If you can’t explain in 8 words or less why people should care, you will fail!

Theory of Change (TOC) for this Singles “Mizvah Program”

Action• Brought together Jewish volunteers to help homeless, poor, sick.• Enabled people L’Tikkun Olum with minimum time commitment.• 1000 volunteers served people 15,000 times a year!• Leverage all investments broadly, many marriages and now

families too, 25 years strong, award winning.

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DCJCC Community Service

• Message: “Make a difference. Make some friends.”• Strong business plan/TOC, board and team.• Constantly checked performance metrics and refined plan.• Collaborated w/ DOZENS of groups. I ran it for 3 years.

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NEW: Washington DCJCC “Summer of Service”(SOS)

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NEW: Washington DCJCC “Summer of Service”(SOS)

• Partner between DCJCC Longstanding Community Service Program and teachers from Autism Program in Public School.

• Enables students with disabilities to be care GIVERS, and not just takers.• Teaches real-world work skills. • Started with a survey of needs/people interested:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/summerservice• Pilot program served 12 middle & high schoolers; was a massive success.• Kids helped the homeless, hungry and an animal shelter. • Students got service credit hours towards their graduation, made friends,

learned skills and a real sense of accomplishment.• Overview of program:http://respectabilityusa.com/respectabilityusa-dcjcc

-announce-new-community-service-opportunities-for-middle-and-high-schoolers-with-disabilities

The Challenge• Republicans wanted to stop Clinton Agenda• Were using legal means and the court of public

opinion as a strategy• Clinton had made SERIOUS mistakes• Still wanted to move policy agenda forward• Core Clinton team didn’t want to carry water on this

issue• Gender gap a major problem (i.e. soccer moms) for

mid term elections

Action• Pivot to issues that mattered more to voters – economy/jobs, homes, crime• Use female messengers to repeat same message over and over• Turn crisis into an opportunity to drive agenda• High job approval could pass agenda and win elections

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CASE STUDY: Monica Lewinsky

• Make sure messages hit the “bottom of the pyramid” and swing voters.

• Three is a the magic number. Need a message TRIANGLE, not an octagon!

• Message repetition is key – generally takes being touched at least 7 times to move behavior

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Rules to work by

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Message Pyramid

• >1 Elected Officials/Experts

• 10 Percent: Opinion Leaders

• 15 Percent: Informed Public

• 75 Percent: Politically Passive Voters

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Focus on the “Swing Voter”

25%

50%

25%

Amen ChoirSwing VotersAlways Against You

Clinton Message Triangle

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18 million new jobs

Crime is down Home ownerships up

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High Job Approval

Started at JFN with other JFN Members -

Action

• Didn’t waste resources on “Amen Choir”• Focused on swing voters, laser sharp messages• Leverage all investments broadly• Legacy now in many programs (TIP, Jerusalem U, IDF, Chinese

Media Center at COMA, Fuente Latina, Al-Masdar etc.)

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Example – The Israel Project

• Had a strong business plan, board and team• Constantly checked performance metrics and refined plan• Collaborated with DOZENS of other leaders/groups• We donated $, plus I worked for free for first 5 years

1. Have serious experts do your public opinion research. Don’t short-cut message testing or targeting. It’s not what you say that matters, it is what people HEAR.

2. Say "NO" to good ideas.There is never enough time, talent or "treasure" (i.e. money) to do everything. It is critical to be disciplined enough to say "yes" to GREAT ideas. Who are our swings? What messages will work with them? What is the most cost effective delivery system for those messages?

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Rules to Work By

18 18 18

Develop the Message and Monitor Public Opinion

• Focus Groups• Polls• Dial testing

Leveraged Delivery

• Share research• Training partners• Creating on-message

materials

Media Relations

• Media briefings/ events• Fact sheets• TV ads for press• Direct mail to press• Email to press• Online references for press

Must be data driven

Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Page 19 |

Allies

Isra

el

No

t W

ell

At

All

Ver

y

Wel

l

Sports, culture , and music

Speak English

Friendly people

Free dom and e qual ity

Protects ci tiz e ns from terrorists

Spre ads democracy

W orks for pe ace

No human rights violationsTrading partne r

High Te ch

Share s re l igious values

Supports U.S. pol icie s

Democracy

Not At All Important Very Important

Traits of allies: Where Israel measures up

*Data based on October 2005 opinion elite survey

Israel SupporterPalestinian Supporter

Neither/Undecided

Thinking about the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in the Middle East, please tell me whether, in general, do you think America should be...

58%

9%

23%

Voters believe the U.S. SHOULD support Israel

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

68%

60%

71%

46%51%

43%

23%

14%

2% 4% 3%

11%6% 7%

10%

8%

24%30%

23%

38%34%

48%

61%

71%

7/2002

10/2002

4/2003

5/2005

10/2005

5/2006

12/2007

3/2008

Disengagement Lebanon

7/2008

6%

14%

69%

9/2008

7%

23%

59%

11/2008

6%

12%

66%

Jan. 2009

1/2009

9%

23%

58%

Challenge

Action

• Education of the heath risk• Proof you can indeed quit

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CASE STUDY 4:Smoking

• Kills people• Corporate interests against

change• Industry creates jobs

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TOC

RespectAbilityUSA MISSION

RespectAbility is a new national, non-profit, non-partisan organization whose mission is to:1- Reshape the attitudes of American society so that people with disabilities can more fully participate in and contribute to society, and 2- Empower people with disabilities to achieve as much of the American dream as their abilities and efforts permit. RespectAbilityUSA will work to educate, sensitize and engage Americans to focus on what people with disabilities can do, rather than on what they cannot. RespectAbilityUSA thereby will seek -- gradually, steadily, and in a practical way -- to help increase the number and percentage of Americans with disabilities who engage in gainful employment, start and sustain their own businesses, lift themselves into the middle class, and participate in their communities -- as fully as their abilities and efforts will take them.

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Donn Weinberg Founding Chair

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Shelley Cohen

Thomas M. Sweitzer

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi CEO & President

Louis Zweig

Board of Directors

19%

72%

8%

Have you or they ever been turned away or unable to participate in a Jewish event or activity because of the disability?

YESNOI DON'T KNOW

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1 out of 5 with disability turned away

 

Strongly Agree

18-29 Somewhat Agree

18-29 Somewhat Disagree

18-29 Strongly Disagree

18-29 Really Not Sure

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Jewish events and organizations should be as welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities as everyone else.

89% 88% 9% 10% 1% 1% * * 1% 1%

Raising my children to be Jewish is very important to me.

81% 75% 12% 17% 2% 4% 1% 1% 3% 4%

Caring about Israel is a very important part of my being Jewish.

80% 63% 15% 27% 2% 5% 1% 2% 2% 2%

Israel is the spiritual center of the Jewish people.

71% 65% 22% 25% 4% 6% 2% 2% 1% 3%

Having a Jewish spouse/partner is very important to me.

71% 62% 16% 19% 5% 8% 5% 7% 4% 4%

North American and Israeli Jews share a common destiny.

47% 33% 34% 41% 9% 11% 3% 3% 7% 12%

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Priorities of Young Jews

- Published about 3 DOZEN opeds on PwD issues this year- Publications included USA Today, The Hill, Huffington Post, New

Normal, Times of Israel, NY Jewish Week, Washington Jewish Week etc.

- 22,000 people on my email list, email them at least weekly• 2500 Twitter followers https://twitter.com/Respect_Ability- More than 3000 personal Facebook “friends”

https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.l.mizrahi and 10,000 “likes” on RespectAbility’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RespectAbilityUSA

- Member of National Press Club, American Association of Political Consultants, profiled is “SheSource” etc.

- Continue to read on best practices in PR and also go to conferences- Ask experts for help

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Using PR to advance issues for PwDs

- AIPAC http://www.thejewishweek.com/blogs/new-normal/aipac-where-are-sign-language-and-captions

- JFNAhttp://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jfna-hypocritical-on-disability-issues

- Jewish Day Schoolshttp://forward.com/articles/170753/jewish-day-schools-dirty-little-secret/?p=all

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Name, Blame & Shame

- Abraham’s tent (JFNA/JFN – 150 people)- Training at TBA (20 co-sponsors – 150 People)- Training on Capitol Hill (150 disability leaders)- Constant webinars and calls (i.e. Gov. Markell,

Gov. Walker, Lori Golden of EY, next is Mathematica on “Best Practices”)

- Fellows program – so far 24 fellows

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Training

RESPECTABILITY USA CHALLENGE

57 million Americans with disabilities and are largely viewed with PITY, not R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Approximately 70% of working –age Americans with disabilities don’t have jobs.

This figure has not improved in 24 years since passage of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Indeed, gap between percent of people with and w/out disabilities in workforce has INCREASED.

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RESPECTABILITY OPPORTUNITY

NGA Better Bottom Line with Gov. Markell (Del) We’ve met with 33 governors so far We’ve “touched” every Capitol Hill office more than 20 times WIOA Passed House 416-6, Senate 95-3 – now law All 50 Governors have this year to create new plan to expand

jobs for PwDs – we are working with them to create those plans based on best practices

New Rule 503, Executive Order and Veterans rules mean expanded Federal opportunities

Fiscal cliff for SSDI in 2016. On Bi-partisan Policy Commission Special Committee

Enormous pressure to fill gaps quickly. HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY

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Who Can/Will Really Care About These Issues?: Maslow’s Hierarchy

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RespectAbility Message Pyramid

• >1 Elected Officials/Experts

• 10 Percent: Opinion Leaders

• 15 Percent: Informed Public

• 75 Percent: Politically Passive Voters

Foundation for Jewish Camps and inclusion: http://www.jewishcamp.org/sites/default/files/u4/Jewish%20Camp%20for%20Children%20with%20Disabilities%20and%20Special%20Needs%20-%20Full%20Survey%

20Findings.pdf

Jerusalem U/RespectAbilityUSA and inclusion:http://respectabilityusa.com/new-poll-data-of-2607-jews-these-jews-feel-strongly-about-inclusion-of-people-with-disabilities-even-more-so-than-israel-jewish-life-marrying-jewish-or-having-jewish-

kids

RespectAbilityUSA on jobs for people with disabilities:http://respectabilityusa.com/new-poll-of-3839-people-in-disability-community-shows-3-out-of-4-people-with-disabilities-surveyed-value-a-job-and-independence-over-government-

benefits

People with disabilities and voting/political activism: http://laszlostrategies.com/index.php/sub-press/press-releases/119-breaking-news

BUT MORE RESEARCH URGENTLY NEEDED!

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Public Opinion Research and Disability

Once Again: 3 Messages (a.k.a your “message triangle”)

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1. The majority of Americans with disabilities who are working age want to work. They represent a talent pool of 9 million Americans who can make companies and organizations stronger and better.

2. Hiring people with disabilities can make companies more profitable. Nationally Walgreens has found this to be true as employees with disabilities, when aligned with their talents and interests, are more productive, loyal and have fewer work place accidents than employees without disabilities.

3. Hiring Americans with disabilities can save money for taxpayers. The U.S. spends billions each year on benefits to people who, in most cases, would rather have a hand up than a hand out. They need to be included in employment because of the talents they bring to the table. Their work and commitments to success can be a part of how the U.S. can compete against countries like China in this tough global economy.

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People with a Disability & Families

Employers

Providers

Support System

FutureEmployment

Limited Belief & Aspirations• Can’t• Not Ready• Passive• Perceived Safety of Segregation• Benefit Risk• Reliance on System• Unprepared for Transition To: Full Belief & Desire• Yes I Can• Yes You Can• Active• Dignity of Risk & Integration• Benefit Management• Utilize System to Bolster Natural Supports• Prepared for Transition

Fragmented, Agency Centric To:• Silo’s• Not my mission• Focus on Person’s Deficits• Measured on Process• Lack of Coordination• Funding Gaps• Policy Deterrents

Coordinated, Person Centric• Integrated• Common Goals• Focus on Person’s Abilities• Measured on Outcomes• Coordinated• Sufficient & Flexible Funding• Policy Enablers

Benevolent Agnostics To:• Sympathetic Hiring• Lack of Knowledge• Randomly Solicited• Tolerant of Job Coaches• Cost / Risk Focus

Active Recruiters• Asset Based Hiring• Knowledgeable• Relationship Based Matching• Respect for Job Coaches• Cost / Benefit Focus

Current Employment

Service Definition Driven• Focus on Person’s Deficits• Legacy Services• Readiness Model• Little Collaboration• No Standard Training• No Certification• Outsider to Employers• Process Compliance Driven• Low Pay / Esteem To: Holistic Outcome Driven• Focus on Person’s Abilities• Best Practice Services• Trained / Certified• Part of Employer Team• Rewarded for Outcomes• Improved Pay / Stature

Area Mental HealthVocational RehabilitationDept of Social ServicesSocial SecurityWorkforce Development Housing AuthorityDPICommunity CollegesUniversitiesCommunity Agencies

“Employment First”Vision

What Must Change?

Goal: IncreaseEmployment for

People withDisabilities

Focus on outcomes, not outputs.Real results can take a marathon, not a sprint. Breaks enable you to take a step back and re-evaluate people, processes and performance metrics. The best ideas for work are often made the far away from the office.

Smile.Work, no matter the hours and intensity, should be fun. Leaders with a "glass half full" mentality will get more productivity and positive outcomes from their teams. After all, life is short. Why not make it fun?

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Rules to work by

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Gov. Bryant (MS) with disability leaders

On Mississippi becoming an Employment First state: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nxt4OV8KwJU

Gov. Walker (WI) with disability leaders

Link to Jennifer’s interview with Gov. Scott Walker: http://respectabilityusa.com/conference-call-with-scott-walker/

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• Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) quickly improved policies and practices and made it a key point in his State of the State address. Expanded to 27 Project Search sites, which will help young people with disabilities go straight into jobs instead of a life of dependency. He has become a role model for expansion of opportunities for people with disabilities.

• Governor Jack Markell (D-DE) has transformed standards.• Gov. Bryant (MS) already declared executive order and now changing all laws

• Gov. Dennis Daugaard (SD) did the same in his State of the State address and has created a very specific plan to move ahead. Both of Gov. Daugaard’s parents are deaf, he has a special understanding of these issues.

• Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois started “employment first policies.”• NY looking at a new plan of action.

• Iowa’s Governor Terry Brandstad has been working with Sen. Tom Harkin on solutions.

Some examples of positive action from the Governors

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Published Op-eds• A Better Bottom Line: Employing Individuals With Disabilities

By Jack Markell, Gov. of Delaware Aug. 13, 2013 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gov-jack-markell/a-better-bottom-line-empl_b_3749414.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

• Finding jobs for Cole and his peersBy Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.)July 1, 2013 http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/308499-finding-jobs-for-cole-and-his-peers

• Disability advocates laud governors' jobs focusBy Cindy Bentley, Daniel Bier, Joan Karan, Lisa Pugh And Beth SwedeenAug. 1, 2013 http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/disability-advocates-laud-governors-jobs-focus-b9966299z1-217983671.html

• Michael J Fox: A Role Model for the disabledBy Jennifer Laszlo MizrahiSeptember 25, 2013http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/09/25/jennifer-laszlo-mizrahi-on-disabilities/2860765/

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Published Op-eds• Getting people with disabilities into the workforce: Brad Sherman

By Rep. Brad Sherman, (D-Cali)July 7, 2014http://www.dailynews.com/opinion/20140717/getting-people-with-disabilities-into-the-workforce-brad-sherman

• MTV’s TJ Lavin, Gov. Jack Markell, Rep. Pete Sessions, Rep. Brad Sherman and Gold Medalist Matt Cowdrey Join RespectAbilityUSA to Stand Up for Jobs for People with Disabilities (PwDs)Feb 14, 2014http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/14/respectabilityusa-job-idUSnPnDCshdwz+160+PRN20140214

• Hiring Americans with disabilities CNBC segmentAug 27, 2013http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000193204

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My ask to you: Don’t fund discriminaton

• Does your organization have policies and/or programs that support meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities at all levels? Are they prominent on your website and materials?

• Does it have a disability advisory committee / inclusion committee, and if so, are Jews with disabilities themselves and their family members on the committee?

• Will ALL people with any kind of disability be welcomed to participate? If not, why

not? If so, how do you plan to identify, reach, and welcome them? • Do you serve Jews with disabilities in an inclusive way (welcoming them inside the

full community), or are they forced into segregated “special needs programs” which are inherently unequal?

• Has someone who uses a wheelchair personally check the physical accessibility of

your offices and programs for people who use wheelchairs?

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Jewish Survival Through Inclusion

• Has a person who is blind and who uses adaptive computer technology

checked your website and facilities for accessibility?

• Do the videos you use have captions? Do you have a way to communicate with people who are deaf or use other adaptive supports?

• Do you employ individuals who have disabilities? If so, what are their

jobs? Do they receive the same compensation and benefits as all other employees in like positions?

• How you educate your staff, board of directors, trustees and other key people about serving and partnering with people with disabilities?

GO, FIGHT, WIN!

Jennifer Laszlo MizrahiCo-founder/director, Mizrahi Family Charitable Trust

9800 Avenel Farm DrivePotomac, MD 20854

www.RespectAbilityUSA.orgwww.LaszloStrategies.com

Cell: (202) 365 – 0787JLM@LaszloStrategies.com

JenniferM@RespectAbilityUSA.org

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Upcoming Networking Events

•NYC: Sept 16th at 6pm wine and cheese hosted by board member Shelley Cohen

•DC: Sept 22 at 12pm lunch at RespectAbility office in Bethesda, MD.

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