Creative Spirit to Host Annual Fundraising Gala at New York Stock Exchange; Supporting the Twenty Percent of Americans with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Creative Spirit's Road to Equity Gala will take place on Wednesday, April 10, 2024

NEW YORK, April 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Creative Spirit, the first 501(c)(3) non-profit organization devoted to providing fair-wage jobs and highly-effective coaching for individuals with disabilities, particularly those who are neurodivergent and profoundly unemployed, will host its annual fundraising gala at the iconic New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, April 10, 2024.

The 2024 Gala will be chaired by Laurel Rossi, CRO, Infillion and Chairwoman, Creative Spirit and CRO at Infillion and Trustee Mack McKelvey, CEO, SalientMG. Creative Spirit; and aims to highlight the critical issue of unemployment and sub-minimum wage employment among adults with disabilities, an alarming trend that affects 85% of this demographic.

The event is being presented by Voya and a host of sponsors devoted to fair-wage employment and the advancement of the neurodivergent community including CBRE, Colgate, Havas, Infillion, ABLE today, The ADVERTISING Club of New York, Diageo, SalientMG, The Social Architects, Transfr and, of course, the New York Stock Exchange.

The evening will commence with the ceremonial ringing of the closing bell at 4 pm, in honor of employment for individuals with disabilities who are neurodivergent, followed by a celebratory dinner and charity auction beginning at 6 pm, where attendees will have the opportunity to contribute to this worthy cause.

Chris Gardner, author of critically acclaimed "Pursuit of Happyness", Entrepreneur, Single Parent, Speaker and Philanthropist will join the Gala in a keynote fireside chat to talk about companies creating room for neurodivergent adults and learning from his "Permission to Dream" initiative.

Creative Spirit will also be recognizing the incredible contributions of Trustee Karen Eisenbach, CMO, Voya, who passed away in 2023; and The ADVERTISING Club of NY. Voya and The Ad Club have been major supporters of Creative Spirit over the past six years.

"Companies have just begun to de-stygmatize and employ people with disabilities and to acknowledge their value on any organization's bottom-line and culture. Creative Spirit is on a mission to expand its impact on companies and people with disabilities globally who are still profoundly unemployed. We can't forget that it's still legal in the US to pay people with disabilities sub-minimum wage," said Laurel Rossi, Creative Spirit Chair and Co-founder.

For more information about the gala, press interest and donation opportunities, please visit the Creative Spirit Gala Website.

The evening will also include a musical performance from indie band Hotel Fiction and feature streaming digital art by dozens of neurodivergent artists, curated and provided by HUG and Loupe Art.

About Creative Spirit
Creative Spirit is a certified 501(c)(3) organization devoted to creating fair wage integrated employment for individuals with intellectual, developmental, and learning disabilities who are currently unemployed at a staggering 85%. Creative Spirit offers corporate training and consulting to organizations interested in adding disability to their DE&I agenda. Creative Spirit is also dedicated to social justice for the 15% of those with IDDs who do work — paid an average of $3.34 an hour, or go unpaid altogether, because of outdated laws and rampant discrimination. This is a global crisis, and one of the most profound human dignity and economic discrimination issues of our time, yet it goes unsolved.

Contact Creative Spirit at www.creativespirit-us.org and follow us on social across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. #hiredifferent

Press Contact:
Laurel Rossi
[email protected]
M: 617-529-5410

SOURCE Creative Spirit