Jennifer Bose is a researcher on the State Systems team at the Institute for Community Inclusion. She earned her B.A. in psychology from Wellesley College in 1992 and an M.A. in education and developmental psychology from Boston College in 1997. Her primary research interests are the study of promising practices in employment at the state, organizational, employment specialist and individual level and the interactions between individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), families and disability service agencies. Her work includes research on effective strategies to find employment, factors affecting the employment choices made by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, diabetes management in the workplace and Employment First policy implementation. Besides continuing to research promising employment practices, much of her current work centers around tools to increase self-determination for transition-age youth with IDD, including Charting the Life Course™ and alternatives to guardianship.
Email: Jennifer.bose@umb.edu * Phone: 617-287-4353
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.
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.