Ruderman Foundation seeks final nominations for disability inclusion prize

Five winning organizations and companies to share $250,000 in recognition of their work.

By TAMARA ZIEVE
Former US senator Tom Harkin receives an award in Boston this week at the Ruderman Family Foundation’s Inclusion Summit (photo credit: NOAM GALAI)
Former US senator Tom Harkin receives an award in Boston this week at the Ruderman Family Foundation’s Inclusion Summit
(photo credit: NOAM GALAI)
The Ruderman Family Foundation on Monday issued a final call for nominations for its international Ruderman Prize in Inclusion, which awards companies and organizations around the world that operate innovative programs and provide services that foster the full inclusion of people with disabilities.
Five winners each will receive $50,000, both as recognition of their work and as a financial boost to their resources.
“Although people with disabilities are the largest minority group in the world, making up 20 percent of our population, they are among the most discriminated and segregated populations,” said Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation.
The prize, he said, is an attempt to change the injustice.
Nonprofit organizations and companies with an American nonprofit fiscal sponsor, 501(c)3, are eligible for the prize. This is the fifth year the prize will be awarded, and this year the focus is on innovations in the fields of technology, entertainment, art and fashion, media, social businesses and advocacy.
The first stage of the application process will close on August 9.
“Our foundation is constantly exploring new innovative ways to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities in our worldwide society. We strive to highlight the rights of people with disabilities as civil and human rights, and this year’s Prize is dedicated to the entrepreneurial spirit that changes life as we know it and makes us a fairer, more inclusive society,” said Ruderman.
Twenty five organizations worldwide have received the prize over the past five years, including in Russia, the UK, United States, Mexico, Israel, South Africa, Australia, Canada and Argentina. Winners include schools, religious places of worship, a dance company, a university, a bakery and an employment service.