This page is meant to spread the word and spark the imagination as integrated employment opportunities are expanding for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities. It is designed to increase communication and broaden perceptions about how it is possible to improve employment outcomes at the system level.
We are always looking for new state agency promising practices!
If you know of innovative initiatives, policies, strategies or activities occurring at your state’s ID/DD agency, and you would like to nominate your story, please contact:
Below are all of our State Agency Promising Practices for browsing. You can also find specific stories by theme by clicking on the following links:
Implementation of priority policy goals - State ID/DD agency’s regulations, mission or goal statements around employment for both youth and adults and activities related to the achievement of those goals.
Agency organization and operation - Practices or policies around the state ID/DD agency organizational structure (such as new departments, committees, or regional/local re-organization) with respect to the provision of employment for youth and adults with IDD.
Funding and service contracting - Innovative and/or effective funding mechanisms, including development of rates, use of blended or braided funding, or use of funding incentives for providers or transition staff who are successful in helping youth and adults with IDD find and maintain employment.
Training and technical assistance- Formal training supported by IDD state agencies to help increase the use of innovative employment techniques for employment support providers as well as school-based personnel.
Collaboration- Practices that encourage formal and informal interagency relationships with the full range of state agencies (VR, DOE, MH) that more holistically support youth and adults with IDD in employment and emphasize seamlessness from youth to adult services.
Performance measurement and quality assurance - Use of individual and provider level outcome data to assess progress and communicate the importance of employment for youth and adults with IDD.
Communication- Practices that exemplify shared, multi-level, multi-stakeholder communication as the norm, as well as timely and appropriate communication of core organizational values and message. Communication involves the engagement of all IDD agency constituents including families, employers, and other community or state level organizations.
Alabama has piloted the Gaining Access To Employment project, a collaborative effort between the state’s Department of Mental Health/Developmental Disabilities (MH/DD) and its Department of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR). Through this project, known as Project GATE, the two agencies work together to help local service providers use funds to support integrated employment opportunities. MH/DD and VR have a long history of partnering, including joint efforts on a supported employment workgroup, due to the strong relationships between colleagues at each department.
In 2006, a new Maine law mandated the creation of a waiver program that promotes the expansion of supported employment programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD). As a result, state funding for sheltered workshops was reduced for seven workshops and approximately 220 individuals throughout Maine.
Sponsored by Wisconsin's Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS) through the use of Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG) funds, Wisconsin's Job Development Mentors Project (JDMP) pairs three seasoned job developers with four community-based employment support providers that cover 12 counties throughout the state.
New Hampshire implemented an innovative technical assistance model that promoted organizational change to expand individual employment opportunities. This person-to-person change began at the micro level but "trickled up" through organizations across the state.
In 2000, realizing that the state's growth in integrated employment had stalled, the Bureau of Developmental Services invested aggressively in expanding its intervention strategy by recruiting a community provider to work directly through the bureau.
After the adoption of the Employment First policy in Oregon in 2010, state administrators identified the critical role of case managers for people on the support services waiver, and acknowledged the need for their buy-in and investment in the Employment First agenda. The case managers’ knowledge of the individuals they serve, the conversations they have with individuals and their families, and their knowledge of the community are critical to each individual’s success in finding employment, as well as to the forward movement of the Employment First initiative.
The University of Maine’s Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (CCIDS), along with the Maine Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services (BDS) and the Bureau of Rehabilitation Services, developed the Maine Employment Curriculum (MEC). The comprehensive curriculum fosters best practices in employment supports for people with disabilities statewide by using a cadre of trainers who are supported by the Maine Employment Curriculum project staff.
Project Income was a joint venture between the Tennessee Microboards Association (statewide organization that supports individual microboards, which procure and oversee supports and services) and People First of Tennessee (a statewide self-advocacy organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities). The focus of the project was to educate people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) and their families about the benefits of and opportunities for community employment.
In the mid-1980s, the state of Washington was awarded a five-year federal systems change grant to kick-start their supported employment efforts via the Washington State Employment Initiative. Funding from this grant was used to develop training on best practices and to generate high-quality integrated employment supports among agencies.
1998, five state agencies formed the Governance Group. Partner agencies included: Iowa Workforce Development, Department of Human Services, Department of Education, Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation Services and Department of Human Rights. The group was developed in response to a Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) request for proposals that included an advisory group for systems change efforts to expand employment opportunities to individuals with disabilities.
The state of Florida has implemented a five-year employment initiative for people with ID/DD. The goal is to enable at least 50% of adults (ages 18 to 55) receiving APD-funded day services as of July 1, 2004, to achieve community employment by July 1, 2009. APD- funded services include adult day training, supported employment, and non-residential supports and services. Florida is specifically targeting a total of 25% of individuals who were in Adult Day Training (ADT) on July 1, 2004, to be employed by July 1, 2009.
