This project is home to research, training, and outreach activities that promote employment for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Browse all our publications below, or click on the activities links under numbers 1–4.
We are funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research in the Administration for Community Living in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The RRTC is a project of the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
The goal of this line of research is to create a comprehensive information, outreach, and support framework for individuals and families that enables ready and timely access to information about employment throughout the lifespan. Research activities include a scoping literature review, online and in-person focus groups with individuals with IDD and their family members, and the development and testing of an intervention that promotes individual and family engagement in employment planning.
Contact: John Kramer (john.kramer@umb.edu)
Find presentations and publications from this project here...
This work will define a model for employment support that incorporates research, practice, job seeker support needs, organizational culture, and personal resources. Project partners and staff will implement an intervention to improve the quality of services provided by employment consultants through online training, data-based performance feedback, and facilitated peer-to-peer support.
Contact: Alberto Migliore (alberto.migliore@umb.edu)
Find presentations and publications from this project here...
Project staff will develop a model framework and toolkit to support community rehabilitation providers in implementing an Employment First focus. The demonstration of an efficient, scalable strategy that enables CRPs to create change within their own organizations is a key feature of this research.
Contact: Jaimie Timmons (jaimie.timmons@umb.edu)
Find presentations and publications from this project here...
This research strand will define the characteristics of a high-performing state system that promotes cross-agency and resource integration. The strand will also identify effective state practices and policies that lead to employment outcomes, and will and describe Employment First policy implementation and outcomes at both the national and state level.
Contact: Allison Hall (allison.hall@umb.edu)
Find presentations and publications from this project here...
John Butterworth, Principal Investigator: john.butterworth@umb.edu
Allison Hall, Co-Principal Investigator and Project Director; Lead, Policy Strand: allison.hall@umb.edu
Cindy Thomas, Training and Technical Assistance Director: cindy.thomas@umb.edu
John Kramer, Lead, Individuals and Families Strand: john.kramer@umb.edu
Alberto Migliore, Lead, Employment Consultant Strand: alberto.migliore@umb.edu
Jaimie Timmons, Lead, Community Rehabilitation Provider Strand: Jaimie.timmons@umb.edu
Webinars
Organizational Transformation: From Workshops to Community Employment
Employment Support Professionals: Leaders for Change
Does All Mean All? Culturally Diverse Families and Access to Services
Financial Well-Being: Reframing the Conversation
Informed Choice and Employment First: What Does It Really Mean?
"44" Series - Our webinar series takes a fresh look at issues and opportunities around employment for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). That’s why we call it "New Conversations About Integrated Employment." These webinars encourage creative thinking, and provoke reactions. Each conversation brings an original perspective to topics around IDD and employment.
Publications
Bringing Employment First to Scale: Integrating Research, Training, and Knowledge Translation
Bringing Employment First to Scale: CRP Organizational Change
Bringing Employment First to Scale: Policy and State-level Strategies to Promote Employment
Bringing Employment First to Scale: Achieving Best Practice in Employment Supports
Bringing Employment First to Scale: Knowledge Translation for Individuals and Families
Bringing Employment First to Scale: Who are Employment Consultants? Characteristics of the workforce that connects jobseekers with intellectual and developmental disabilities to employment
The Truth Comes From Us: Supporting Workers with Developmental Disabilities
Bringing Employment First to Scale: Organizational Transformation: Guiding Principles for Community Providers
Bringing Employment First to Scale: From Sheltered Work to Competitive Integrated Employment
Research and Training Center on Community living at the University of Minnesota
National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services
Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE)
APSE (the Association of People Supporting Employment First)
Interviews with employment consultants reveal 5 key elements for supporting job seekers with disabilities. This brief describes 5 key elements for supporting job seekers with intellectual and developmental disabilities in finding individual paid employment:
Self-advocates with intellectual disabilities describe Employment First efforts in their states, and why those efforts are important.
Quick summary:
Self-Advocates Becoming Empowered asked leaders in the self-advocacy movement to describe the impact of Employment First in their states. The authors spoke with 21 peer leaders across the country and asked, “What does Employment First mean?”
Key findings and quotes
Access the recorded webinar here. Access the transcript here. In the fall of 2017, researchers from the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) will lead a series of online discussions on the "State of the Science" (SoS) in employment for people with IDD.
Read the brief here. We conducted an extended search of trainings provided by state agencies and service providers that are targeted towards families. Trainings in the form of written material (handbooks, brochures and computer-based courses) or given in person by service professionals, peers and others have been found to raise expectations that family members with IDD can become employed in their communities.
Download the flyer here. The RRTC at the Institute for Community Inclusion, in conjunction with The Arc of the United States, is studying the process of provider transformation towards competitive integrated employment. We have created an Agency Change Toolkit and a Community of Practice called the Provider Transformation Network.
Download the brief here. This brief covers Strand 4: Policies and Practices of High-Performing State Employment Systems.
Download the brief here. This brief aims to share information learned from two studies: 1) interviews with employment consultants; and 2) a Delphi process to determine what characteristics are most critical for organizational transformation from facility-based to community-based integrated employment for people with IDD. The relationship between study findings will be explored and a relational model will be introduced.
Download the brief here. This brief summarizes a paper (State of the Science: Engaging Families, 2017) that explores the role of families in individuals’ employment outcomes through a scoping literature review, as well as findings from a qualitative study involving family members and individuals.
How Do Families Enhance Employment Opportunities?
From September 11–15, team members from the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) will be leading a discussion on ways to engage people with disabilities, their families, and their services providers in creating employment options.
In July 2017, ThinkWork conducted a State of the Science session the The Summer Leadership Institute hosted by The Arc of the United States. Please check out our slides from this event.