Defining Employment First
Employment First is a national systems-change framework centered on the premise that all individuals, including those individuals with the most significant disabilities, are capable of full participation in Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) and community life. Under this approach, publicly-financed systems are urged to align policies, regulatory guidance, and reimbursement structures to commit to CIE as the priority option with respect to the use of publicly-financed day and employment services for youth and adults with significant disabilities.
Many states have formally committed to the Employment First framework through official executive proclamation or formal legislative action.
Employment First Community of Practice
The Employment First Community of Practice (CoP) Webinar Series provides the opportunity to hear from nationally recognized experts on innovative practices being used across the country to advance Employment First. CoP webinars take place on the second Wednesday of each month and topics include:
- Capacity Building, Provider Transformation,
- School-to-Work Transition,
- Employer Engagement, and
- Policy/Funding Alignment.
Join the CoP List Serve
The CoP list serve currently has over 2,700 subscribers. Subscribers have access to federal disability employment policy briefs and announcements. Subscribers also receive “Save the Date” announcements for upcoming CoP webinars. Click here to join.
CoP Webinar Learning Center
ODEP has hosted over 100 CoP webinars since 2012. The CoP Learning Center consists of selected webinars that are often helpful to provider organizations and state and local governments as they move toward an Employment First approach. The webinars are organized into six topic areas and updated periodically.
- Exploring Networks of Financial Support for Provider Transformation: An Update from California – The webinar revisits Bakersfield ARC (last featured in November 2021) and their transformative efforts to end practices involving subminimum wage and closing their sheltered workshop. In addition, learn how Bakersfield ARC took advantage of state funding and grant opportunities to advance their transformation, and hear from California state officials about how those grants were distributed and how such efforts can be replicated with success in other states.
- Work Learning Activities as a Pathway to Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) – In this webinar, presenters share how state leaders successfully blend vocational rehabilitation and developmental disability agency supports to create effective work-learning opportunities for those seeking to build skills while looking for work, and for students currently engaged in Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS).
- The Role of Non-Work Activities in Developing Critical Skills for CIE – In this webinar, leaders, direct support professionals, and people supported discuss the invaluable role non-work activities play in community engagement, and their importance in building critical life and social skills needed to find success in employment.
- Statewide Collaborative Efforts to Increase CIE: Lessons from Colorado – This webinar highlights the combined efforts of state and local organizations in expanding CIE throughout the state of Colorado. The Colorado-based presenters detail the development and sustaining of partnerships and policies that go back more than six years, the role each stakeholder plays in maximizing success, and the fundamental components necessary for successful statewide collaboration.
- State Settlements and CIE: Rhode Island's Story – This webinar features a closer look at Rhode Island and how their support for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in CIE has grown since its 2014 settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. It also includes testimonials from those on the ground in Rhode Island who helped transform the state's employment services, workers who benefited from the settlement, as well as a conversation with those currently leading the state's CIE efforts.
- Secondary Benefits of Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) – During this webinar, researchers Dr. Paul Wehman and Dr. Katherine Inge discuss the impact of CIE on economic and, psychological and physical health outcomes for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. This research covers the additional benefits and implications for participants and the communities engaging in CIE.
- National Plan to Increase Competitive Integrated Employment – This webinar highlights the National Expansion of Employment Opportunities Network's (NEON) National Plan to Increase CIE. The webinar provids several points of view on the importance of CIE including CIE experts Dr. David Mank and Dr. Rich Luecking; national provider organizations including the Arc US, ACCSES, APSE, SourceAmerica, and ANCOR; local provider organizations; and people with disabilities thriving in CIE.
- ARC of Bakersfield Provider Transformation Success Story – In the webinar, ARC of Bakersfield, one of the (NEON) Local Partner Organizations, shared their experiences being a NEON local provider organization. They also shared the decisions they faced when fully embracing CIE.
- Lessons Learned from COVID-19’s Impact on Competitive Integrated Employment – In the webinar, David Mank and Rich Toscano discussed their findings from group interviews with national and international leaders on COVID-19’s impact on (CIE) for people with disabilities. They also present strategies for employers and providers to consider post-COVID-19 to maximize CIE for people with disabilities.
- State Guidelines for Employment Support Personnel Training Certificates and Certification – This webinar provides guidelines for consideration in state agencies' decision making about requiring employment support personnel to acquire certificates of training or certification as Employment Support Professionals. The professional development expectations in states often happens in a broader context of multiple systemic changes to promote the expansion of CIE.
- Competitive Integrated Employment in 2020 - Consumer and Provider Perspectives – During this webinar you will hear stories about how people with significant disabilities have adapted so that they can continue to work. You will also hear real examples about how employment staff have changed their job developing and job coaching strategies to support CIE.
- Training and Retaining Staff – During this webinar, participants learn how investing in staff development is critical to the success of provider transformation, expanding CIE programs, and staff retention. Participants also learn how the advent of Employment First, the HCBS Rule, and WIOA are increasing the demand for a more proficient and versatile network of employment specialists.
- Staffing to Provide Competitive Integrated Employment – During this webinar, participants learn about strategies to recruit, train and retain staff that support the Employment First mission of the agency. Rick McAllister discusses approaches to enhancing recruitment efforts and shares a training paradigm that builds skills and supports retention with a focus on the value of competence.
- Provider Transformation from a Rural Perspective – This webinar explains strategies to create CIE for people with disabilities in rural areas and understanding the strategies used to fund transportation. Participants learn techniques to engage families and to create buy-in from staff.
- Communications and Branding Strategies for Transition – This session provides strategies to effectively communicate with internal and external audiences during transition to Employment First. Participants learn the steps of building a communications plan that prepares audiences for change and creates a culture of transparency and trust.
- Capacity Building Strategies – The webinar addresses Capacity Building for providers seeking to implement evidence-based practices. The presenters address the core competencies required to provide a range of effective employment service options for individuals with significant disabilities. These competency models provide a basis for developing training curriculum and programs for providers.
- Apprenticeships: Understanding the Funding and Opportunities – This Webinar takes a deeper dive into apprenticeships, providing opportunities to learn its benefits, systems of successful implementation and possible funding sources.
- Customized Employment: Funding, Fidelity and the Future – In this webinar, panelists discuss best approaches for funding Customized Employment (CE) efforts. It explores available CE funding sources and the necessary financial considerations for providers incorporating CE into their service offerings. The webinar concludes with a participant discussion on how to provide tangible steps for increasing access to CE funding.
- Successful Customized Employment Examples for Veterans – During this webinar a panelist introduces several Veterans who have successfully transitioned from the military into civilian jobs with the assistance of CE. The veterans' success stories are entwined with the definition of CE, highlights of key principles and how they can be integrated into current practices to improve Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) for Veterans.
- Employers' Perspective on Customized Employment – On a quest to determine the economic impact of hiring individuals into customized jobs, subject matter experts interview employers in Iowa and Maryland to understand how and why they have embraced customized employment.
- Inclusive Apprenticeship: The Future of Work – In this webinar, presenters from ODEP discuss how inclusive apprenticeship can facilitate entry into well-paying careers in high-growth, high-demand fields for underrepresented population groups, including youth and adults with disabilities. The presentation highlights how the Apprenticeship Inclusive Model (AIM) initiative fosters access to career pathways in information technology, healthcare and advanced manufacturing for marginalized population groups.
- Employer's Perspective: Hiring and Developing Employees with Disabilities – In this webinar, hear from Jeremy Shapira, with Special Projects, Inclusion and Diversity at Giant Eagle, Inc., on innovative ways his organization has made hiring and including people with disabilities part of the workplace culture.
- Employer Perspective: Innovative Case Studies Involving Workers with Disabilities – During this webinar, participants learn first-hand from organizations across the country who are hiring people with disabilities in their business model. Some are utilizing technology to increase productivity while others customize jobs and provide reasonable accommodations.
- Customized Employment: Managing the Employer Engagement Process – This webinar focuses on CE from the perspective of the employer and addresses strategies for identifying the needs of employers that lead to successful customization of jobs.
- Effective Approaches to Benefits Planning – This webinar takes a closer look at benefits planning from a state-systems perspective and looks at a model of implementation from Missouri that can be emulated by states and providers. It also covers how benefits planning can assist all jobseekers to understand how their benefits are affected by work activities, and how providers and state agencies each contribute to creating a successful system.
- ABLE Accounts: A Down Payment on Financial Freedom – This webinar provides participants with the basic components of ABLE programs including eligibility criteria, contribution limits, what ABLE funds can be spent on and the tax advantages of ABLE accounts. It also provides resources and tools for individuals with disabilities, their families and service providers to integrate ABLE into employment planning.
- Benefits Planning (Provider Perspective) – This webinar focuses solely on the provider perspective and the barriers teams face with Social Security and Ticket-to-Work. After watching this webinar, participants will understand what an actual employment benefit plan looks like to the client.
- Employment Networks (ENs) – In this webinar the panelists discuss various types and obligations of an EN, and provide suggestions and perspective from the administrative, state-wide and provider level on the benefits of ENs to people and providers looking to expand competitive integrated employment (CIE) opportunities.
- How to Dispel Myths about Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to Increase Employment Outcomes – This session provides an overview of SSI and the available work incentives including strategies and tools that assist in helping jobseekers understand the information and the importance of framing the conversation as financial stability rather than just benefits planning.
- Supporting Employment Service Providers to Succeed and Prosper by Partnering to Advance Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE): Applying Value, Outcome and Performance-Based Payment Methodologies – In this webinar attendees hear from employment services providers that work with state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) systems and state Medicaid Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) systems. These providers discuss how they have implemented value-based purchasing and outcome-based reimbursement methodologies to advance CIE.
- Unique Funding Ideas for Providers – In this webinar, presenters take a deep dive into alternative funding streams for providers. They provide concrete examples of which services the various streams can fund and advice on how to apply for funding.
- Funding Strategies for Competitive Integrated Employment – This webinar discusses funding diversification and re-alignment strategies to assist service providers in making the transition from facility to community integrated service models. It also explains steps providers and states can take to increase employment outcomes for people with disabilities, including those with significant disabilities.
- Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (VDARS) Model: An Outcome Based Approach for Capacity Building – During this presentation, VDARS's model for serving Ticket to Work (TTW) clients is described to demonstrate a capacity building approach for developing services across the state that benefit VR clients and other TTW eligible clients. Participants learn how to potentially create a braided funding source for providing services to individuals with disabilities beyond the VR closure date through the utilization of TTW funding.
- Funding for Competitive Integrated Employment Support Services for People with Mental Health Conditions – This webinar provides an overview on the development of the Advancing State Policy for Recovery and Employment (ASPIRE) initiative and how Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) programs to support people with mental health conditions are developed and funded in Iowa, Wisconsin and Florida.
- Self-Employment Possibilities and Resources for People with Mental Health Conditions – This session focuses on three primary factors to contemplate when people receiving behavioral support services are considering self-employment, including the match between the business idea with the prospective business owner's conditions of employment, feasibility of the business concept and the availability of supports. Possible resources for funding business start-ups is also explored as well as strategies for braiding and blending funding.
- Job Supports for People with Mental Health Disabilities – This webinar shares the importance of evidenced-based supportive employment programs and job supports in assisting people with mental health conditions to obtain CIE. It also discusses the barriers that prevent universal application of these programs and job supports.
- The ADA and IPS-Supported Employment: Improving the Working Lives of People with Substance Use and Mental Health Disorders – This webinar introduces how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to addiction in three phases of employment: pre-offer, post-offer and employment. It includes use scenarios to discuss and illustrate the application of the ADA as it relates to alcohol, opioids, cocaine and marijuana. It also discusses the Individual Placement Support (IPS) model and shares research on its effectiveness for people with serious mental illness and/or substance use disorders.
- Employment Supports for People Recovering from Mental Illness – This webinar briefly reviews IPS practices and principles, research and implementation strategies. It also describes cross-system issues, such as funding these services, state agency agreements and the role of a national learning community, which has accelerated implementation and dissemination.
- Peer Mentoring in Mental Health and Beyond – Nationally, peer support has become an important employment opportunity for individuals in recovery from a mental health and/or substance use disorder that reduces recidivism, service utilization, and isolation for those who are attempting to enter or maintain their personal recovery. States, such as Ohio, are on the forefront of trying to expand the peer support workforce, increase professionalism and maximize funding streams for sustainable services. As the role of peer support continues to evolve, so does the opportunity to expand the inclusivity of the service to employment teams and work incentive planners.
- Living and Working with a Serious Mental Illness (SMI): My Path to CIE with SMI and Helping others with SMI to Reach their Employment Goals – Deborah Homan is a professional with a serious mental illness, but with support from her family and working with her psychiatrist, she has successfully maintained her career in CIE. In this webinar, Deborah shares her personal story about returning to work after experiencing mental health symptoms and explains how her current work as an IPS trainer for the state of Illinois has helped others with serious mental health conditions do the same.
- Pre-employment Transition Services: Implementation Efforts, Successes and Challenges in Minnesota and Idaho – The purpose of this webinar is to help viewers develop an understanding of the Pre-employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) requirements as outlined in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). It also highlights successes and challenges in Minnesota's and Idaho's Pre-ETS implementation efforts and discusses how lessons learned can aid other states in their implementation efforts.
- Expanding Partnerships: Career Pathways, Opportunities and Challenges – A team from the District of Columbia highlight their joint initiatives to ensure that Employment First efforts extend to career pathways partners, including the development of cross-system memoranda of understandings (MOU). These MOU's are formal agreements that support the inclusion of youth and adults with disabilities, including people with behavioral health disabilities, into programs that open doors to high-demand and high-growth careers.
- Providing Virtual Employment Supports Part One: Job Connection and Coaching – This webinar addresses virtual delivery of job development services. It briefly reviews strategies and tools that effectively increase interaction over technology and then explains the importance of virtual meeting templates, mental health checks, training on technology tools, job development notebooks and video resumes.
- Providing Virtual Employment Supports Part Two: Job Development – Part two continues the discussion of providing virtual services, but this time, focusing on job coaching. This webinar provides an overview of person-driven accommodation tools that can increase independence. Additionally, presenters discuss Work Autonomy, an app aimed to strengthen the employer-employee relationship. An interactive question and answer session closes the webinar.
- Applying WIOA Pre-ETS for Transitioning Students and Youth – WIOA represents a significant change in how state vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs interact with schools and offer services to students and youth preparing to transition to adult employment. This webinar provides information on the current state of Pre-ETS implementation in the country.
- The Implications of WIOA for Seamless Transition for Youth with Significant Disabilities – This webinar discusses activities that have proven to contribute to successful and seamless transitions from school to adult employment. A particular focus is on the new Pre-ETS under WIOA and the enhanced role of workforce development youth services.
- Ohio's Implementation of WIOA Section 511 Requirements – The implementation of Section 511 sets the expectation that youth and adults with disabilities should have opportunities to pursue competitive integrated employment (CIE) and employment should be considered in every person-centered plan. This webinar provides information on the current state of Section 511 implementation in the country.
- Ticket to Work and Employment Networks – This webinar gives a background of Ticket to Work (TTW), the process of becoming an Employment Network (EN), pros and cons of being an EN and the benefits to ticket holders (SSA beneficiaries) while participating in the program.
- Putting it to Practice: Building School to Work Programs – In alignment with WIOA's emphasis on Pre-ETS, this webinar focuses on youth and employment programs that provide services leading to employment. It discusses School-to-Work (STW) transition models and curriculum that prepare students for CIE.
- WIOA and Business Engagement: Making it a Reality – This webinar explains a variety of considerations and strategies to better engage both private and public employers in a systematic fashion.
Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program
ODEP began the Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program (EFSLMP) in 2012 in response to states’ request for assistance on how to support individuals with significant disabilities in CIE. Over the 13 years it has been active, ODEP has supported 24 states in their strategic efforts to increase CIE for individuals with disabilities, including those with significant disabilities. The EFSLMP inspired selected states to facilitate policy reform and fully implement the Employment First approach with funding alignment, service coordination, and capacity building across state government agencies and external stakeholders which are all vital to promoting CIE options for individuals with significant disabilities.
The Evolution of EFSLMP
EFSLMP laid the foundations for existing ODEP initiatives, such as the National Expansion of Employment Opportunities Network (NEON) and the Advancing State Policy Integration for Recovery and Employment (ASPIRE) initiatives.
EFSLMP Resources
- E1st State Transformation Guide - In order to support states in their Employment First and systems change efforts, ODEP has identified 10 Critical Areas to Increase CIE. This guide helps states make holistic systems change by assisting in developing and implementing strategies in each of these 10 Critical Areas. ODEP’s CIE webpage has specific resources for each critical area.
- EFSLMP Federal Briefings - On August 8 and 9, 2018, the Office of Disability Employment Policy hosted 15 federal offices, including representatives from the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, Justice, the National Council on Disability, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Social Security Administration, to learn about and discuss the Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program.
- Connecting the Dots: Using Federal Policy to Promote Employment First Systems-Change Efforts – This brief provides a robust summary and overview of public policy, regulations, rules, and informational bulletins that support employment outcomes and Employment First for youth and adults with disabilities.
- Federal Legal Framework that Supports Competitive, Integrated Employment Outcomes of Youth and Adults with Significant Disabilities - This brief highlights various legal actions by federal enforcement agencies that have significant implications for how states prioritize and deliver services for individuals with disabilities. These actions relate to the organization, financing, and provision of employment and long-term services and supports consistent with an Employment First framework.
- Criteria for Performance Excellence in Employment First State Systems Change & Provider Transformation – This brief provides guidance to states involved in systems change efforts aimed at improving CIE outcomes of youth and adults with disabilities. A blended approach of top-down systems-change strategies, combined with community-based capacity building activities initiated by key stakeholders, is critical to the successful implementation of an Employment First strategic framework.
- Federal Resources Available to Support State Employment First Efforts - This brief provides state governments and external stakeholders with information about available Federal funding resources and technical assistance available to further state Employment First systems change efforts.