You're listening to the Disability Law Lowdown, show number 52, with your host, Jacquie Brennan.
I hope that everybody who's listening has visited disability.gov by now. It's a great Web site that brings together lots of different aspects and things of interest especially to people with disabilities. And it's a great resource.There's a place on there where you can sign up for e-mail updates from different agencies and if you do that, you'll get a lot of e-mail. And I signed up for just about every single one of them! And about half of what I get, is just not that interesting. You know, it's a lot of press releases and things that are just, you know, announcements about speeches being made by different individuals and, you know, just not all that interesting. But maybe twenty-five percent of it is, you know, pretty interesting. Things that I didn't know, or that I need to know. And then that last twenty-five percent is really good stuff. And so it's definitely worth wading through the half that's not great to get to that other half.
And one of the e-mails that I got last week led me eventually, after a few links, to a paper written by or in conjunction with, at least, APSE, that talked about establishing a national Employment First agenda. I'm a little familiar with Employment First, but not as much as I need to be, or as I am now. And it was a really interesting paper about this establishing a national Employment First agenda. Of course, Employment First activities are generally at he state and local level. And, you know, they need to be because of that whole, you know, "think globally, act locally" effort. But, this is an interesting way to look at it and a way to expand the concept of Employment First and what that really means to individuals with disabilities.
I have e-mailed to the people who wrote this paper and they've agreed to do a webinar with me, which we'll do as soo as we can establish a date. But I didn't want to wait to get the information out and thought maybe you would enjoy hearing about this paper, as well.
In order to advance this growing national momentum to focus on integrated employment as
the desired outcome for people with disabilities, the Board of Directors of APSE recently
established a strategic objective to support and promote the Employment First movement
throughout the United States.
Individuals with disabilities in the labor force have a positive financial impact on our economy. They
generate income and that income is ultimately returned in the form of tax revenues and purchase of
goods and services. But despite knowing this, people with disabilities continue to have the
highest unemployment rate of any minority group in our country.
In recent years, there's been this growing grass roots movement to establish Employment First
initiatives in the United States. Most of the Employment First initatives are being led by local state APSE chapters or other entities with the active participation of the state APSE chapter leaders and members.
Although no universal definition of “employment first” exists, the policies, practices and
strategies focus on integrated, community-based employment as the desired outcome for
people with disabilities. Employment First strategies generally consist of a clear set of
guiding principles, policies and practices disseminated through state statute, regulation or
operational procedures that identify employment in integrated, community-based businesses
as the priority for state funding. A number of state initiatives have taken steps to clarify what
employment first means. One example is in Minnesota. The definition os employment first is “expecting,
encouraging, providing, creating, and rewarding integrated employment in the workforce as
the first and preferred option of youth and adults with disabilities.”
Employment First initiatives highlight the need to raise expectations and implement better
practices around employment for individuals with disabilities. And to that end, many state
initiatives have taken additional steps to define what “employment” means to ensure the goal
of integrated jobs in the workplace at competitive wages and benefits. While Employment First
initiatives utilize supported employment and customized employment strategies,
employment is not defined using those terms. Employment First initiatives center on holding
individuals with disabilities to the exact same employment standards, responsibilities, and sets of
expectations as any working-age adult.
Employment First is about raising expectations. The real engine of social change is not money
but rather expectations. Of course, we have to have adequate public resources to get high quality
education and integrated employment outcomes. However, without higher expectations,
people with disabilities and their families often settle for programs or services that don't
encourage them to participate fully in the mainstream of community life. This is confirmed by
the fact that a majority of working age adults with significant disabilities are supported today
in programs that offer segregation and long-term dependency regardless of the cost.
So, how can Employment First initiatives increase the demand for integrated employment? This
can be accomplished through better public education and policy advocacy.
Individuals with disabilities and their families must be made more aware of the exciting
integrated employment opportunities available to them. It's particularly instructive to share
employment success stories of others to create hope, stimulate imagination, and increase
expectations of all stakeholders. When individuals with disabilities and their families recognize
the clear benefits, their expectations will change and they will choose work.
Successful initiatives work to establish
“Community Action Teams” with goals of advancing an Employment First vision. This would
logically include local coalitions of federal, state and local organizations as well as individuals
who are willing to work together to get things done in a targeted geographic area. It's
important to create Community Action Teams that can organize their work plans around the
unique situations that exist in a particular community. The teams should be comprised of
business leaders, job seekers, educators, family and disability advocates, employment
providers, workforce development professionals, county representatives, voc rehab professionals, and other interested community members. The “ticket” to
belonging to a successful Community Action Team is a commitment to action. The team’s
overall performance will be gauged by the implementation of better practices and
measurable increases in integrated employment for individuals with disabilities.
Business represents the “demand side” of the employment
equation. The task of Employment First initiatives is to connect the demand side with the supply
side, which is available workers. There is a growing body of evidence that hiring Americans with
disabilities is just good business. Studies have demonstrated that workers with disabilities are
loyal employees who bring necessary talents and skills to the workforce. Despite stereotypes
about disabilities, there is no evidence that employees with disabilities are unsafe or less
effective on the job than employees who don't have disabilities. And the American public
has expressed strong support of businesses that choose to hire job seekers with disabilities.
Employment First initiatives need business leaders to champion their cause and carry the
message forward. There are many thousands of satisfied employers in the United States who
have practical experience as well as expertise in hiring and integrating workers with disabilities.
Many can speak about their employees who have disabilities with direct authority and
knowledge about their business contributions. In America, we don't need a charitable
marketing campaign. We need a national business dialogue about employees with disabilities
as economic assets. This not only means hiring qualified job applicants but also hiring quality
workers who can perform essential job tasks customized to fit their identified strengths.
One of best ways for Employment First initiatives to shape the
future is to engage effective partnerships with secondary and post-secondary education
institutions. Significant changes in policies and procedures must begin with changes in school
systems so an Employment First vision is firmly rooted in the blueprint for the future. Practically
speaking, this means redesigning service policies and practices so transition-aged youth and
young adults are guided directly to post-secondary education options or integrated
employment in the community workforce.
The educational system needs to modify its investment in the training of teachers and others
involved inspecial education, vocational training and vocational rehab, business, and
management. Employment First initiatives need to work with education to refocus the
expectations of educators who work directly with students with disabilities. This means
redesigning educational curricula with core principles of Employment First policies and 21st
Century Skills in addition to utilizing supported and
customized employment practices.
Degree programs preparing children, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and business
leaders for the future have to include dedicated courses on universal design and differentiated
instruction so that workers with complex disabilities are employed as a regularly occurring part
of the community workforce. Vocational rehabilitation counselor training must take extra care
to assure that graduates exit their program prepared to develop Individual Plans of
Employment that are based on the unique needs, interests and situations of the
individuals with whom they serve.
And finally, schools and adult service systems need to work together to eliminate “employment
readiness” service designs.
Establishing a clear and uncompromising definition of “employment” would be helpful. For most Employment First
initiatives, this means a focus on real jobs, real wages, and real business settings. It also means
the launch of self-employment and micro-enterprises. It's critical for everyone to be working
from the same set of assumptions. Stay focused on this one, simple concept. If you can
maintain a singular focus on a simple idea, your initiative will not be lured into distracting
arguments. Employment First is all about fundamental rights. Who can be against people with
disabilities having an equal opportunity to get a good job, use their talents and skills, earn
competitive wages, increase their self-support, and contribute to the prosperity of their
communities?
Our country spends millions of dollars on secondary education, adult community services,
Social Security disability benefits, transportation, and comprehensive health care of Americans
with disabilities. Unfortunately, many of these resources do not encourage or reward
integrated, community-based employment. Resolving our national unemployment problem
will require a shift in policies and "rebalancing" of many existing resources.
The most successful initiatives recognize that the core change is to thoughtfully and
methodically address policies that encourage and support integrated community employment outcomes.
This vision for change needs to be reflected in all appropriate public policies that affect
education as well as adult health, disability, and human services. To the extent possible, public
policies need to be unmistakably clear about expectations as well as provide for flexibility to
rebalance existing resources. Of course, this means moving aggressively to develop new
policies, amend existing ones, and reallocate funding to promote an employment first
approach.
Everybody means everybody! No one wants to erect disability service “silos”, but be wary of
designing a workforce system that is too generic and fails to deliver critical job-related
supports. Although we would love to see individuals with disabilities employed using the same
methods and processes as everyone else, individuals with more significant disabilities are
universally overlooked. There are many initiatives throughout the country aimed at
employment of individuals with disabilities, but when push comes to shove, individuals with
more significant disabilities are either pushed to the end of the line or shoved out of line altogether.
That may seem like a contradiction, but we have learned that negotiation
practices and strengths-based approaches are essential tools in the integrated employment
of individuals with disabilities – especially for those with complex lives and situations. Virtually all
individuals with disabilities have important qualities and talents to contribute to business – and
they can work successfully with the right type of job support.
Present education and rehabilitation service systems are invested in programs designed to
correct problems related to the presence of disabilities. Even the lexicon associated with the
delivery of special education and adult disability services communicates the wrong message.
There is an underlying communication that people with disabilities are “special” or "damaged"
in some way and need to be "rehabilitated" so they can join the workforce like the rest of us.
That's an archaic way of thinking and communicating about the job potential of individuals.
Employment First initiatives work to rebrand the work through moving toward an
educational and workforce system that identifies, markets, and employs assets and strengths
one person at a time. Emerging practices in customized and supported employment offer
exciting possibilities to change the present system of education and workforce development
services. Many individuals with disabilities, especially those with significant disabilities, do not
need rehabilitation but rather customized job supports to choose, get, and keep integrated
employment.
Most of us have been through a lot of
initiatives that have lost their steam or failed to deliver on the promise of integrated
employment for all individuals with disabilities. The most successful Employment First coalitions
work to keep the momentum going and realize that real change means pacing themselves to
run the proverbial marathon. Working to achieve real systems change takes time and the
pace will be determined by the size and scope of the identified goals. The most successful
initiatives have established a strategic vision with clear goals for changing policies, practices,
and outcomes. Despite their measured gains, they work to widen their circle of Employment
First champions by including self-advocates, family members, business leaders, educators,
policymakers, employment providers, and others to share in the division of labor.
There is no “cookie cutter” approach to implementing an Employment First
strategy in any state. Although there is much to be learned from successful, experienced
initiatives, each alliance must address systems policies and funding barriers in its own backyard.
Transforming a network of education, disability, workforce development, business, and human
service systems is challenging and very complex work.
To find out more about this initiative, you can go to ASPE.org.
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