Engaging Communities in Identifying Local Strategies for Expanding Integrated Employment During and After High School

Abstract

Amidst decades of attention directed toward improving employment outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), few efforts have been made to engage communities in identifying local solutions for expanding integrated employment opportunities. We examined the implementation and outcomes of "community conversation" events held in 6 geographically and economically diverse locales. Each event used an asset-based dialogue approach called the World Café ( Brown & Isaacs, 2005 ) to solicit ideas from a broad cross-section of community members on improving integrated employment that reflect local priorities and possibilities. Six key themes encapsulated the 1,556 strategies generated by the almost 400 attendees. Although considerable consistency was found among the categories of strategies raised across events, the manner in which those individual strategies would be implemented locally reflected the unique accent of each community. Attendees also viewed these events as promising and productive pathways for identifying next steps for their community. We offer recommendations for community-level intervention efforts and suggest directions for future research.

Effects of Self-Directed Video Prompting on Vocational Task Acquisition

“…In 2015, the employment-population rate for people without disabilities in the U.S. was 65%, but only 20% of individuals with developmental disabilities between the ages of 18 and 34 indicated that they currently had community employment, despite 59% of individuals in this age range without a job in the community reporting that they would like one (National Core Indicators, 2015;United States Department of Labor, 2016). There are several potential reasons for this disparity, including employment discrimination in certain fields (Houtenville & Kalargyrou, 2015), lack of a marketable skillset, social skill deficits, insufficient available supports (Test, Smith, & Carter, 2014), low expectations from family and educators (Doren, Gau, & Lindstrom, 2012), and lack of work and internship experiences (Carter et al, 2016;Carter et al, 2009).…”

Towards an asset-based approach to promoting and sustaining well-being for people with aphasia and their families: an international exploratory study

“…An asset-based approach has been applied extensively in the areas of community development (Dolezal & Burns, 2015;Johnson Butterfield, Yeneabat, & Moxley, 2016;Wu & Pearce, 2014); education (Chikoko, Naicker, & Mthiyane, 2015;Missingham, 2017;Ssewamala, Sperber, Zimmerman, & Karimli, 2010); social welfare (Carter et al, 2016;Culp, 2017;Soaita, Searle, McKee, & Moore, 2016); and business (Fisher et al, 2009;Tracey, O'Sullivan, Lane, Guy, & Courtemanche, 2017). For example, the basis of an assetbased approach within the field of community development is to create 'community' by focusing on assets available within the community and connecting these, rather than focusing on shortcomings and deficits (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993).…”

The TennesseeWorks Partnership: Elevating employment outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities

“…Expectations for employment were uneven among families, educators, and other professionals; existing policies inconsistently aimed toward integrated employment; the availability of strong professional development was limited; accessible resources and information were difficult to find; pursuit of integrated employment was not incentivized; our commitment to employment first did not always penetrate practice; silos were more common than sustained collaboration; and stories of struggles were more common than stories of success. These barriers emerged as recurring themes in our conversations with stakeholders, in the community gatherings we held across the state (Bumble, Carter, McMillan, & Manikas, in press;, and in our surveys of parents and educators (Bethune, Carter, & O'Quinn, 2016;Blustein, Carter, & McMillan, 2016).…”

“…Early in our project, we launched a study aimed at understanding the views of more than 2,400 parents across our state on employment for their daughters and sons with IDD: their post-school expectations, the factors that shape those expectations, and the concerns they hold (Blustein et al, 2016;Gilson, Bethune, Carter, & McMillan, in press). We learned that a large proportion of parents (83%) placed considerable importance on part-or full-time employment in the community for their child in the early years after leaving high school.…”

“…The involvement of a research-intensive university like Vanderbilt introduces both interest in and capacity to embed rigorous studies throughout our systems-change work. As referenced elsewhere in this article, we have undertaken studies addressing how "community conversation" events can inform and spur local changes in employment opportunities (Bumble et al, in press;Bumble, Carter, McMillan, Manikas, & Bethune, in press), parental expectations and resource needs related to employment and other post-school outcomes (Blustein et al, 2016;Gilson et al, in press), transition-related professional development needs and pathways among special educators (Bethune et al, 2016), family perspectives on the conversion of sheltered workshops (Carter, Bendetson, & Guiden, 2016), and employer attitudes and recommendations regarding hiring people with disabilities (currently underway). In addition, we are undertaking secondary analyses of employment and transition data available within selected statelevel data sources (e.g., National Core Indicators, Tennessee Longitudinal Data Systems).…”