'Take a chance with me': Sea Girt man with cerebral palsy starts disabled job placement

SEA GIRT - After graduating from Villanova University in 2014, Frankie Kineavy figured he was ready to take on the world.

And why not? Born with cerebral palsy and nonverbal, the Sea Girt resident has been wowing people since childhood, communicating with candor and wit by pointing to letters on a printout affixed to his wheelchair.

Sadly, the world wasn’t ready for him.

“I really struggled to convince people to take a chance with me,” he said.

So last year, he took a step to address that problem — not for him, but in general. He launched an employment agency for people with disabilities. On Thursday, he explained his vision to a group of Philadelphia-area disability advocates.

“This is something that has affected my adult life,” Kineavy said in a speech delivered via Zoom. “The struggle of people with disabilities to find meaningful and fulfilling careers.”

In a nutshell, Kineavy wants to take his capacity to inspire to the next level. He wants to be a change agent.

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'A role model for his generation'

Frankie Kineavy has spent all of his 31 years raising the bar. At Manasquan High School he helped the football, basketball and baseball coaches by scouting upcoming opponents. At Villanova University he posted a 3.2 GPA and worked as a men’s basketball manager under Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright. After college he coached youth sports, served an internship with the Lakewood BlueClaws and wrote features part-time for the Rutgers Athletics website.

“Frankie has been a role model for his generation, and for all of us, since he was a little boy,” said George D’Amico, president of the Greater Spring Lake Chamber of Commerce, which last month named Kineavy its Citizen of the Year. “He’s an amazing advocate for people with disabilities.”

Well, that advocate ran flush into a wall in 2019. Laid off from his full-time job as a writer with the data platform Diversity Inc., Kineavy finally had reached a door he couldn’t open. And he strongly suspected he wasn’t alone.

“There is a difference between giving someone a job and helping them start a career,” he said.

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So he launched the employment agency Let’s Be Frank, and its first placement was a resounding success: He got a Villanova graduate who has autism an internship with the magazine Baseball America, which led to a position in the front office with the Philadelphia Phillies.

“That hit home because my dream in college was to be a general manager for Major League Baseball,” Kineavy said. “At 22 years old, I didn’t have a Let’s Be Frank. I had my dad and my uncle who were my advocates.”

His dad, Frank Kineavy Sr., is still in awe of Frankie’s drive.

“There’s a lot of things he can’t do that we can do, but there a few major things that he can do that I know I can’t do,” Frank Sr. said. “He has the ability to change people’s lives.”

That was Frankie’s pitch in Thursday’s speech.

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It's not about the paycheck

To grow Let’s Be Frank, Kineavy needs two things: candidates for employment and corporate partners. He reached out to Philadelphia city officials, which led to Thursday’s meeting with Special Olympics administrators and other area advocacy leaders.

In a seven-minute speech, which was voiced by an automated reader, he laid out his vision to “build a bridge” between college grads with disabilities and businesses that want to do more than check a hiring box.

“Our goal is to build a bench of candidates so we can help them pursue careers they’re excited about,” he said in the speech. “Because the truth is, people with disabilities just want to have normal adult lives.”

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It’s not just about earning a paycheck. It’s about fulfillment.

“Yes, people with disabilities can serve as inspiration, and should share their stories with other people, but we have career goals and things we want to achieve, just like everybody else,” Kineavy said. “You can see this at every Special Olympics site — people with disabilities capable of achieving way more than the limits society puts on us.

“Your athletes have shown their ability to raise the bar of expectations put on them athletically. Now it’s up to people, like the great people who make up this group, to give us a chance to set the bar on what corporate America should expect from us professionally.”

After the speech, Kineavy took questions from the group. He did so with the help of Andrew Schwaeber, a “scribe” who interprets and voices Kineavy’s rapid-fire finger-points at the letter board on his wheelchair.

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Afterward, Kineavy was asked how he thought the presentation went.

“Very encouraged with the feedback,” he said. “Most meetings end with a pat on the back and very little action.”

His point is clear: We can do better.

For more about Let’s Be Frank, email Frankie Kineavy at Frank@lbfsports.com.

Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Job placement agency for disabled people started by Sea Girt man