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Customized Employment
The linchpin of all of ODEP's adult demonstration programs is the testing of Customized Employment (CE) strategies. Customized Employment is designed to improve employment opportunities and career advancement for people with disabilities by enhancing the availability and provision of these services through the One-Stop Career Center system. The aims of Customized Employment are to:
- Focus on the establishment of client preferences for a career choice;
- Individualize the program to the individual's strengths, interests and choices;
- Coordinate services that move the worker in the direction of that career choice;
- Negotiate with employers to locate a job that fits with the individual's and employer's interests: rapidly placing the person into a competitive job:
- Provide on-going support in that job that is not time-limited.
Adult demonstration programs target people with significant disabilities who are either unemployed or under-employed and include those who:
- Receive Supplementary Security Income (SSI) and/or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI);
- Participate in day activity programs or participate in facility- or community-based employment, and earn less than minimum wage;
- Are working in segregated employment and want to move to integrated, competitive employment;
- Have moved from a residential facility, or as part of a plan to move into a community who want employment services and supports;
- Are chronically homeless; or
- Are transitioning from, or preparing to transition from, secondary school under a transition plan under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and without access to CE strategies, would likely be referred to segregated employment but prefer to obtain a job in an integrated, competitive employment environment or through the option of self-employment.
