John Butterworth

Director for Employment Systems Change and Evaluation and Senior Research Fellow

John has over 40 years of experience in research, training, employment support and the management and development of employment services. He manages projects on employment support and state systems change including Access to Integrated Employment, a 35 year national data collection project on day and employment services and outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the State Employment Leadership Network, a membership network of state developmental disability agencies committed to improving employment outcomes. John’s interests include systems and organizational change, data-based management and planning, state policy and strategy, employment outcomes, organizational development and transformation, improving employment supports, natural supports , and person-centered planning.

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Kansas Employment First Policy Analysis and Recommendations: Final Report

The Kansas Employment First Policy Analysis and Recommendations report reviews implementation of the 2011 Kansas Employment First Initiative Act, which prioritizes competitive integrated employment (CIE) for people with disabilities. It finds limited progress and identifies gaps in leadership, funding, coordination, training, data systems, and equitable access. Stakeholders prioritized three actions: establish a strong operational leadership group, embed employment across service systems, and implement a sustainable funding strategy to expand high-quality CIE outcomes statewide.

Supporting employment consultants in their work with job seekers

This Spotlight on Research shows that on average, employment consultants invest most of their work hours (44%, 3.5 hours/day) in either administrative activities or non-employment related activities, compared to only about 30% (2.4 hours/day) in supports that lead to hiring of job seekers with disabilities.

Building quality supports: Implementation support beyond training

Improving employment outcomes requires not just training, but intentional investment in coaching and supervisory practices that support implementation of best practice. This presentation for the Reinventing Quality Conference 2021 addresses strategies for improving implementation support from practice, research, and policy perspectives.

Manuscript: Using data-enabled performance feedback and guidance to assist employment consultants in their work with job seekers: An experimental study

The success of job seekers with disabilities in achieving their employment goals depends in large part on the quality of employment supports that they receive from employment consultants. This article describes a study testing the effectiveness of data-enabled performance feedback to assist employment consultants in implementing standards of effective employment supports.

Key Findings and Lessons Learned from Research on Integrated Employment for individuals with IDD

This presentation highlights key findings and lessons learned from the RRTC on Advancing Employment for People with IDD (2014-2019). ICI staff discuss a “knowledge to action” agenda that applies empirical data towards the development of strategies to positively impact the employment outcomes of individuals with IDD and their families.

Developing Interagency Agreements: Four Questions to Consider

Interagency collaboration can be a powerful tool in expanding the ability of state systems to provide effective supports that lead to real change for individual citizens. This brief provides a summary of how to develop a good interagency agreement. Download brief here.

The Power of Disability Employment: The Impact to Arizona’s Economy

Arizona’s working-age population (ages 16–64) of people with any type of disability (10.2%) who are working hovers around the national average (Erickson, Lee, & von Schrader, 2019). In addition, individuals with a disability in Arizona, as in the nation as a whole, are more likely to live in poverty (30.5% and 26.1% respectively).

Key Elements of Organizational Transformation: Lessons Learned from the Provider Transformation Network

This document contains slides from a presentation given at The Arc Summer Leadership Institute in 2019. The information covers key lessons in organizational transformation that can help disability services providers implement best practices.

Click here to view and download the presentation slides

The Numbers and the Stories Behind Them: Higher Performing State Employment Systems

This document contains the slides from a presentation given at the APSE national conference in 2019. It presents statistics that illustrate the characteristics of relatively higher-performing state systems with regard to employment and community engagement outcomes for individuals with IDD. Click here to view the presentation slides.

Working in the Community—Update 3 The Status and Outcomes of People with IDD in Integrated Employment

National Core Indicators™ (NCI™) data provide an important window on the employment and outcomes that may be related to employment (such as friendships, choice-making, etc.) of people with IDD receiving services. This Special Issue Data Brief updates the Brief from May 2016 and describes the employment status of individuals supported by state IDD agencies and compares participating states in terms of proportions of service recipients in different types of community employment.

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