Reich told him, “Do for young people with disabilities in the 90s what you were doing for minorities in the 60s.” After a tragic accident left him a quadriplegic, Reich founded the National Organization on Disability (www.nod.org). He was  acutely aware of the need for someone to open some of those tightly closed  doors for disadvantaged young people with disabilities.

‘Give us the opportunity to do it right’
Before taking on this new mission, Dey explored what life was like for the nearly 52 million Americans with disabilities. He interviewed experts in the field of special education and spoke with parents at length to gain insight into what was needed most to make a difference in these young people’s lives. What heheard was, “Charley, if you do anything, introduce our daughters/sons to the workplace . . . we need fresh ideas, new approaches . . . give us the opportunity to do it right.”

With those marching orders, Dey founded Start on Success  www.startonsuccess.org) in partnership with Reich’s National Organization on Disability. At first, Start on Success, or SOS as it’s known, established a pilot program with the University of Pennsylvania. Each morning, 15 special  students from University City High School in West Philadelphia focused on their academic skills in the classroom. Each afternoon, these same students went to work at paid internships throughout the university.

Some worked in the bookstore, some in the admissions office, others took posts in the school’s computer center. Key to this program was the fact that the students worked closely and consistently with mentors to help them successfully navigate through the unfamiliar terrain of the workplace.

While the students gain critical work skills, the most important thing they take away from the program is confidence. Eighty-five percent of SOS graduates have pursued higher goals such as full-time employment or further education after high school. This is a significant accomplishment since high school students with disabilities have twice the dropout rate as their peers.

Since 1992, SOS has expanded its reach to five cities and has placed 1,600 high school students in internships at universities, hospitals, and small  businesses.

Beyond the numbers, there are the kids. Says one SOS graduate, “All my life, people have been telling me what I can’t do. Start on Success told me what I can  do.”

When the man who came to dinner came to lunch
“I was very uncomfortable with someone anointing me a Purpose Prize winner,” Dey says. “But on the other side, it has attracted enormous attention to SOS and if that’s going to help many more kids, them I’m all for it.”

Accepting the Purpose Prize meant taking time out from SOS to attend the Purpose Prize Innovation Summit at Stanford University in September 2006. The highlight of the three-day event was a luncheon gven to honor Dey and the other four $100,000 Purpose Prize winners.

Shortly before the luncheon, Dey was told that one of the judges made a special request to present his prize. That judge turned out to be none other the one of Dey’s personal heroes, actor Sidney Poitier. Referring to one of  Poitier’s most memorable roles in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Dey accepted the honor by saying, “For me this will be an ever treasured moment when the man who came to dinner came to lunch!”

One last door
What’s next for Charley Dey? He still has one big door yet to open, but the future looks bright. Over the next ten years a record number of people are set to retire; creating what experts predict will be a shortage of 10-15 million jobs. This workforce crisis may be just the thing to boost the chronically low 34% employment rate for Americans with disabilities. Dey thinks it is.

Working with the National Organization on Disability, he’s using the $100,000 prize money to help Americans with disabilities of all ages get the skills and the training they’ll need to fill those jobs.