The Great Employment Movement
The Great Employment Movement
August 2022
By MaryEllen Noe
Director of Community Employment, Stone Belt
INAPSE Board Member, Vice President of the Southern Region, Conference Committee Co-Chair, Transition Committee Co-Chair
Monroe County Transition Council Co-Chair
Work to Include Team Lead
There is a movement brewing, a gentle whisper in the wind stating the time is NOW! The State of Indiana has committed to helping providers move away from work in sheltered workshops. Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) has a goal to work its way out of order of selection in the next five years. With federal and state supports, we are looking at an upcoming movement of growth for individuals with disabilities in the workplace!
Employment for individuals with disabilities reached an all-time high in June of 2022. According to National Trends in Disability Employment (nTide): “Comparing year-to-year data, as the economy recovers from the effects of the pandemic, people with disabilities have outpaced people without disabilities, with their employment now exceeding pre-pandemic levels.” This is cause for celebration! The pandemic, along with ‘The Great Resignation’, has opened many doors for individuals with disabilities. People with disabilities are finally being valued as long-term employees with contributions to make in the workplace! This win still reflects individuals with disabilities representing 3.9% of the labor market[1] indicating that there is more work to be done.
The State of Indiana has created an Employment Transformation Collaborative. The purpose of the collaborative is to assist providers in transitioning from sheltered work to competitive integrated employment (CIE). There are over twenty providers in the state participating in this transformation. Each provider named a core collaborative team of 4-5 individuals who will come together quarterly to outline action steps toward the transformation goal and drive the planning and implementation efforts for their agencies. This is a 2-3 year effort with a kick-off meeting that happened in July 2022. The core of this collaborative is tapping into truly valuable discovery services for effective long-term placements. Agencies will be challenged with using Value Stream Mapping, including interviews with an individual’s team members and agency mapping to assess current and future conditions. This will shine a light on the bright spots and the waste for the agencies. The end goal is to create a blueprint for future actionable steps towards positive change leading to full inclusion in the community!
Additionally, Vocational Rehabilitation has applied for a federal grant to further support individuals in transitioning from subminimum wage to competitive integrated employment. If funded, the grant will support four providers in implementing a model demonstration project focused on supported employment with fidelity.
All of these efforts support the mission of the Employment First movement. In 2017, Indiana passed the Employment First law. This law states: “Employment in the community is the first and preferred outcome of all services for people with disabilities.”[2] This supports the belief that ALL individuals, regardless of disability, have a right to be employed in the community and earn a living wage. As a provider, we believe EVERYONE can work and should have access to support to be successful. The passed law is just words on paper until community members buy in and put it into practice. The Work to Include Coalition aimed for just that!
The Work to Include Coalition was a statewide effort, started shortly after the passing of the law, to assist with these efforts. Work to Include consisted of a variety of stakeholders: individuals with disabilities, family members, providers and more! There were several small community coalitions that developed different campaigns in the interest of educating and supporting businesses to work on breaking down barriers. All of the separate community coalitions came together monthly to share in the efforts and develop more. Work to Include looked at statewide systemic changes that needed to be made to push these efforts forward. The four-year funding for that has ended but many communities have continued on with the efforts.
It’s an incredibly exciting and refreshing time in the disability sector! Many moons ago, an individual with a disability could not attend school with their peers. All of the efforts for inclusion over the years have brought us to this moment. The moment in which we can hope that the term inclusion is no longer used, the moment where it doesn’t take education of a business to hire someone with a disability rather a handshake and a “you’re hired!” the time in which individuals with disabilities are seen for their abilities, worth and what they are bringing to the table! The time is NOW!
For more information on how to be a part of the efforts, please visit inapse.org, worktoinclude.org, or email menoe@stonebelt.org.
[1] nTide (June 2022), Jobs Report. Kesslerfoundation.org. https://kesslerfoundation.org/press-release/ntide-june-2022-jobs-report-employment-reaches-all-time-high-people-disabilities
[2] IN-APSE (August 2022), Employment First. inapse.org. https://www.inapse.org/employment-first-introduction