Allison Cohen Hall, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Associate/Project Manager at the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Dr. Hall has coordinated national, multi-method research projects spanning several topic areas related to disability and employment. She led the research that culminated in the Higher Performing States Model, which has been used as a framework for training and technical assistance in over 30 states. Dr. Hall is currently the Principal Investigator on a four-year project that addresses family engagement, guardianship and transition outcomes for youth with intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD), as well as the Principal Investigator of the Youth Voice/Youth Choice: National Resource Center on Alternatives to Guardianship. She maintains close ties with the self-advocacy community and supports individuals with IDD to participate in meaningful roles in the research process. She received her doctorate in 2005 from the Heller School at Brandeis University.
We have created a series of four Engage Briefs to examine the guideposts in detail. This brief explores how to use natural social supports to help individuals transition away from paid supports.
Every American has the right to work in their community. People with disabilities can work and handle a job. We know what we are doing. We know how to speak up and speak out for ourselves.
The growing emphasis on government accountability at the state and federal levels has increased interest in the collection and use of outcome data. Moreover, research has found that high performing states in integrated employment generally have a clear and visible data collection system that includes individual outcome data (Hall, Butterworth, Winsor, Gilmore, & Metzel, 2007). But what are the most important elements in designing and using a system?
Washington stakeholders report that the state’s focus on employment started in the late 1970s with values-based training based on the Program Analysis of Social Services (PASS-3) model.These workshops were widely attended over several years, and many of today’s key players in state and county services participated as leaders.
Employment for people with severe disabilities was legitimized in P.L. 99457. However, some states have made more progress than others in helping individuals with disabilities achieve successful employment outcomes. This is the first in a series of publications highlighting the findings from the case studies in three states--New Hampshire, Washington, and Colorado--that have been recognized as high performers in integrated employment.
Between 1988 and 2001, New Hampshire's Division of Developmental Services transformed the state's day and employment services from a facility-based model, with 61% of individuals supported in sheltered workshops or facility- based day habilitation programs, to a model that supports 94% of its individuals in the community. Fifty- four percent of the individuals served work for at least part of their week in integrated employment.Two things are striking.
Between 1988 and 1996, the number of individuals supported by state mental retardation/developmental disabilities (MR/DD) agencies who participated in some type of community employment increased by 200% (Butterworth, Gilmore, Kiernan, Schalock, 1999). Despite this increase, many agree that outcomes in community employment are in great need of improvement and vary widely among states. The purpose of this report is to highlight the successful practices of states that have been identified as "high-performers" in integrated employment for people served by state MR/DD agencies.
In 2002, the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS) developed a contractual requirement that employment service provider performance be tracked through outcome measures. As a result, DDS shaped its employment data collection system to focus on what it viewed as key outcomes for measuring success around employment.
In Colorado, counselors from the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation are housed on-site in Community Centered Board offices so they can provide direct services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD). The goal of the project was to serve 240 customers with ID/DD and provide 134 successful employment outcomes over a two-year period. Streamlined services and enhanced communication emerged through a unique collaborative effort between the two entities.