Award Winner Builds Parallel Career in Advocacy

VIENNA, Va. – For more than 30 years, Keven Moulton, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 2 years old, has been employed. In addition to his career, he's committed to advocating for himself and others with disabilities. For his activism, he's being honored as SourceAmerica's 2015 winner of the Tom Miller Award for Advocacy, which recognizes an employee with a significant disability who has demonstrated outstanding achievement and remarkable passion for self-advocacy on a local and/or national level.

"It's a great honor," he said. "I was very surprised when I got it."

Moulton says he learned about the importance of self-advocacy through "a lot of hard knocks," and he wants others to benefit from his experience. As Moulton has worked to improve the workplace for people with disabilities, he's led efforts to educate legislators about the challenges he and others face when it comes to employment. According to his nomination, he's met with every South Dakota lawmaker in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Read more about Moulton here.

"Just trying to, you know, get more people involved so they have more of a voice not just for themselves but for others," he said. "I learned to advocate for myself years ago. (I'm) just trying to get other people to do the same as I can."

Moulton is one of nearly 115,000 people with disabilities employed in 2015 through the SourceAmerica network of more than 1,200 nonprofits.

"All of our award winners this year embody the spirit of our mission: creating meaningful employment opportunities for people with disabilities," said SourceAmerica CEO Steve Soroka. "Each of these men and women is an inspiring example for the rest of us. I applaud their talent, work and conviction."

Schaeffer, of Reinholds, Pennsylvania, will be recognized at the SourceAmerica National Training and Achievement Conference April 25-27 at National Harbor, Maryland.

For more information, visit SourceAmerica's annual awards page.

Media Contact
Kerry McGinley
kmcginley@sourceamerica.org
571-529-0218