Community Rehabilitation Providers Talk About Employment for Individuals with Disabilities and Their Organizations

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Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), in partnership with the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts Boston, are providing a program of technical assistance and training that is being delivered and disseminated nationally to community rehabilitation programs that utilize the Fair Labor Standards Act’s Section 14 (c) Special Minimum Wage certificates. VCU and ICI are working aggressively with community rehabilitation programs (CRPs) who utilize Section 14c certificates to evolve their programs from segregated work outcomes and non-work options. The Training and Technical Assistance for Providers (T-TAP) project will build the capacity of CRPs to facilitate “individually determined, customized employment in non-stereotypic competitive jobs for persons with disabilities.”

Background and Methodology: As part of the early planning stage, the T-TAP project reached out to a sample of organizations that hold Section 14 (c) Special Minimum Wage certificates. The goal of these interviews was to better understand the structure, goals, and priorities of these organizations, and to guide project training and technical assistance. Senior managers from twenty-five these organizations were interviewed by telephone. In exchange for their participation, the organizations were offered free registration to the live Webcast series sponsored by T-TAP on topics such as technology in the workplace, job development, and customized employment strategies.

This summary has three sections:

1. A general description of the respondents, including the type of services provided, the number of individuals served and the number of individuals covered by the 14c certificate, employment categories of those served, and funding sources.
2. Details of organizations' development processes, focusing on changes undergone in the past three years and changes anticipated over the next three years.
3. The challenges encountered in finding integrated community employment for individuals with disabilities, staff training needs, current resources for training, and topics for future training.
   

General Information: Who Are the Organizations?

The majority of the participating organizations provided a range of employment services including evaluation, sheltered employment, group supported employment, and job placement. A few organizations offered other types of services such as living skills classes, residential, day care, and senior day programs. The largest organization served 562 individuals with disabilities, the smallest served 26, with an average of approximately 90 (some respondents reported ranges of those served).

In several instances, all of the individuals served by an organization received sub-minimum wage. In most organizations, over 50% of the total population served received sub-minimum wage. There were a few exceptions, the most notable being an organization that served a total of 100 individuals with only 6 receiving sub-minimum wage. Typically, individuals who received sub-minimum wage were working in sheltered or group supported employment placements, including enclaves and mobile crews. In a couple of cases, most of the individuals served were in facility-based non-work activities.

Typically, organizations used a combination of government (state, federal, and local) and private funding (foundation grants, donations, revenue from work contracts). Five organizations specifically reported utilizing Medicaid waiver funds. One organization was completely self-funded by revenue from its stores. Two organizations had secured NISH contracts.

Organizational Development: How Are They Changing?

Six of the twenty-five respondents reported that there had not been any changes in their organization or distribution of services in the past three years. However, the majority pointed to a harsh economic climate as a factor negatively impacting the amount and type of employment available to the individuals they serve. Some organizations (approximately five) described a general trend towards trying to increase employment in the community for their clients, and shifting their mission to reflect this goal.
In terms of changes in the future, four organizations reported that they did not anticipate any changes in their employment services in the next three years. The remaining respondents indicated that they foresaw changes in the following areas:

• Changes in the population served to more severely disabled and/or older,
• Increases in self-employment and community integrated employment,
• Reduced range of services due to funding constraints,
• Increased growth of the organization overall.

Staff Challenges and Training: What Do They Want?

The challenges noted were largely community-level issues. The respondents repeatedly referred to similar challenges in finding integrated community employment for clients, regardless of the size or location of the organization. Many primarily noted the current economy and high unemployment rate as barriers to finding employment for their clients because more qualified and non-disabled candidates were applying for jobs. In addition, the stereotypes and lack of understanding regarding the abilities of individuals with disabilities continued to be a major challenge for most of the organizations. Transportation was also an important barrier to securing and maintaining employment for clients. Two organizations discussed the barriers posed by consumers' families due to their fear of losing funding and/or their discomfort with change.

Many of the respondents felt that they had satisfactory training for their staff. The most common topic they requested further training on was behavior management of clients with emotional or psychiatric difficulties. In addition, several organizations expressed a need for staff training on specific types of disabilities. However, all of the respondents reported that further training in job development, job carving/creation, developing relationships with employers, community integration, natural supports, and working with families would be beneficial to their staff. Many of the organizations described other content areas that would be beneficial for their staff to receive further training. This included the following:

• general life skills development for clients,
• self-determination,
• instructional strategies for people with alternative learning styles,
• specialized training in areas such as assistive technology and independence,
• coping with severe behavior problems,
• solving transportation problems creatively,
• conflict resolution,
• communication between employers and staff about problems as they arise,
• research on rate of injury for employees with disabilities versus employees without disabilities, and
• the process of applying for 14c wage certificates.

The resources organizations reported currently using for training included state/local agency training (i.e., DMR), internally designed curricula, and local universities.

The predominant source of training was internally designed curriculums and seminars. The majority of respondents did not report frequent use of external resources for training, including Internet resources. However, they expressed interest in access to training that was affordable and readily accessible. All of the organizations reported having a computer with Internet access readily available and accessible. Similarly, all respondents stated that their staff received release time for training. Due to small staff size, several organizations’ ability to release staff for training was dependent on scheduling variables, and meant waiting until clients had left for the day or other staff members could provide coverage.

In summary, this preliminary work is essential for providing assistance to providers in evolving their programs to provide integrated employment outcomes (i.e., non section 14 (c) employment) and to increasing wages of people with disabilities who are currently working at less than minimum wage through the use of customized employment strategies and individual choice. Similar research endeavors will continue through the fall with the administration of a national survey to more than 500 CRP’s.