Welcome to the Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) Transformation Hub page for employment service providers. Historically, many service providers offered segregated employment services. Today they are transforming into agencies that develop jobs and support disabled people in CIE. This page includes resources on a range of topics related to CIE in the context of youth and employment service provision.
This section contains various resources and tools for provider organizations interested in transforming their service delivery models to have an Employment First approach and increase competitive integrated employment (CIE) opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
National Expansion of Employment Opportunities Network (NEON): Plan to Increase CIE – This NEON plan outlines recommendations and action items for increasing CIE, based on the experiences of five national provider organizations participating in the ODEP-funded NEON initiative and their local provider organizations (LPOs). It is intended to provide information and recommendations useful to LPOs, policy makers, funding entities and in-the-field activities in the overall national effort to increase CIE.
Provider Transformation 1.0 Manual and Webinar Series – This manual guides provider organizations interested in transforming their service delivery models to have an Employment First approach. It features eight modules and corresponding webinars. It was published by the ODEP-funded National Center on Leadership for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities (LEAD Center).
Provider Transformation 2.0 Manual and Webinar Series – This LEAD Center manual is for providers who have moved past the beginning stages of transformation and want more advanced knowledge and strategies to help tackle transformation issues they have encountered along the way.
Provider Transformation from a Rural Perspective – This Employment First Community of Practice (CoP) webinar presented by Dwayne Webb, director of employment and day services at St. Johns Community Services, in Tennessee, covers topics such as staffing ratios, family buy-in, funding and transportation.
Turning the Queen Mary: Service Transformation in a Large Agency – This Employment First CoP webinar, presented by Sarah Murphey and Kurt Smith, explains the complexities that service providers experience while transforming into a person-centered, community-based service model.
Agency Change Toolkit – This toolkit from ThinkWork! outlines 10 elements of successful organizational transformation to CIE. It includes a self-assessment tool to guide organizations to identify areas of focus, along with resources and tools to facilitate organizational transformation for each of the 10 elements.
Building Capacity and Supporting Organizational Transformation – This collection of resources from ThinkWork! includes research briefs, webinars and presentations.
Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Advancing Employment – This center conducts research, training and outreach activities that promote employment for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Areas of focus include:
- Choosing work: effective knowledge translation and support for individuals and families;
- Increasing the effectiveness of employment consultants;
- Building capacity and supporting organizational transformation for community rehabilitation providers; and
- Policies and practices of high-performing state employment systems.
Using Individual Placement and Support (IPS) to Assist Job Seekers and Workers with Mental Health Conditions – This LEAD Center webinar introduces the IPS model of supported employment, explores the role of the workforce system in its implementation and illustrates its benefits to workforce programs, job seekers, workers and employers.
This section describes various resources and tools aimed at supporting case managers and employment consultants who work with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) seeking employment. The resources include a four-module online course, a smartphone-based tool to improve employment support practices and a webinar that discusses effective staff recruitment and development to promote competitive integrated employment (CIE).
Supporting a Vision for Employment: A Course for Case Managers – This four-module online course, developed by the State Employment Leadership Network, was crafted for case managers and others in roles responsible for advising, assisting and advocating for individuals with IDD seeking employment.
ES-Coach – This smartphone-based tool from ThinkWork! helps teams of employment consultants to visualize their employment support practices, reflect, set goals and take action for quality improvement. Focused on establishing evidence-based practices in supported and customized employment, ES-Coach collects a snapshot of the supports provided by employment support professionals each day and uses it to build a dashboard of time investments for the team, including which supports are provided, where they are provided and who is present.
Staffing to Provide CIE – This Employment First Community of Practice webinar, presented by Employment First subject matter expert Rick McAllister, discusses the recruitment, development and retention of staff who will effectively promote CIE.
This section offers resources related to community engagement, including an interagency brief that outlines a federal vision for community engagement for individuals with disabilities and a toolkit from the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston that helps service providers improve their support for community engagement.
A Framework for Community Engagement – A Pathway to CIE – This interagency brief presents a joint federal vision for community engagement that enables people with disabilities to expand their skills, experiences and relationships so that they may secure high-quality and personally satisfying jobs and careers along with the benefits of employment.
Community Life Engagement Toolkit – This toolkit from the Institute for Community Inclusion at the UMass Boston helps service providers develop and improve high-quality supports for meaningful community life engagement, meet the goals of the Home and Community Based Services Settings Rule and support individual employment goals.
This section provides information about various resources and initiatives related to employment strategies for individuals with disabilities. It includes resources such as facilitator manuals, slide decks, participant workbooks, fact sheets, briefs, articles, plain-language summaries, guides and reports. These resources are aimed at helping job seekers identify good-fit employment options for themselves and employers.
Guided Group Discovery Resources – These resources from the ODEP-funded National Center on Leadership for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities (LEAD Center) include a facilitator manual, accompanying slide decks and participant workbooks intended to assist job seekers in identifying good fit employment options for themselves and the employer.
Supported Employment Resource Hub – This hub from Virginia Commonwealth University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center provides a number of supported employment resources, including fact sheets and briefs, articles, plain-language summaries, guides, strategies and reports.
Progressive Employment (PE) Models – This field-initiated project from Explore VR is researching the dual-customer PE model for individuals with the most significant disabilities served by state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies and community rehabilitation providers. Resources include fact sheets, recorded webinars and introductory materials.
Online Learning @ ICI – These online trainings from the Institute for Community Inclusion at University of Massachusetts Boston include a variety of interactive and customizable self-guided courses for employment service providers, VR leadership, transition specialists, school administrators and other disability services professionals.
This section provides resources that help individuals with disabilities and their families access programs to promote the transition to adulthood, education and employment. These initiatives include FEAT, the PROGRESS Center, the Engaging Young Adults in Work and School online course and the CCE grant. These programs offer resources, tools and technical assistance services to support local educators, leaders and individuals with disabilities who wish to access competitive integrated employment (CIE) and high-quality educational programming.
Family Employment Awareness Training (FEAT) – FEAT, a project of the University of Kansas Beach Center on Disability, is currently available in five states: Kansas, Indiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Rhode Island. It introduces individuals with disabilities, their family members and the professionals who serve them to resources to raise their expectations for CIE and increase their knowledge of federal and state employment resources.
Promoting Rigorous Outcomes and Growth by Redesigning Educational Services for Students With Disabilities (PROGRESS) Center – Funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, the PROGRESS Center provides information, resources, tools and technical assistance services to support local educators and leaders in developing and implementing high-quality educational programming that ensures disabled students access to free appropriate public education.
Engaging Young Adults in Work and School – This online course provides key information and resources related to the importance of engaging young adults in work and school endeavors, strategies for doing this important work and an inside look into programs that support the transition to adulthood. It was developed as part of the Helping Youth on the Path to Employment project funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research.
Community Collaborations for Employment (CCE) – The Administration for Community Living (ACL) awarded this grant to seven CCE grantees to help increase and enhance collaborations across systems to maximize a seamless experience for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities and optimize their opportunities for CIE. This webinar highlights two grantees (Virginia and Texas) that focused specifically on youth from racially underserved communities and limited English-speaking households. Speakers discuss evaluation strategies they used to ensure efficacy of their employment programs, in hopes others can apply the knowledge to their own programs.
This section provides resources about training programs and evaluation projects that aim to support youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions in their transition to employment or postsecondary education.
Promoting Young Adult Success in School and Work – This training program, free to providers, offers information and resources to people interested in supporting youth and young adults with serious mental health conditions in their transition to employment or postsecondary education. It was developed by the Learning and Working Rehabilitation Research and Training Center at UMass Chan Medical School.
Effects of Self-Directed Career Accounts on Vocational Outcomes of Supported Employment Recipients – This evaluation project examines the impact of a Career Account—a self-directed approach to vocational service delivery—on the employment success of individuals receiving evidence-based practices in supported employment services using the Individual Placement and Support model. It was developed by the Center on Integrated Health Care and Self-Directed Recovery at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Boston University’s Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation – This center and its partners work to develop new knowledge and interventions to help programs and providers develop, implement and deliver services that positively impact the lives of people with severe mental health conditions.