Massachusetts is one of seven new states joining the Disability Employment Initiative (DEI), a program of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) designed to advance education, training, and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
On Friday, Shaun Heasley of Disability Scoop reported that ODEP has allocated more than $20 million to Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Rhode Island. These states join 16 others who have been receiving federal funding to “increase collaboration among multiple programs… to help ensure the best outcomes for those with disabilities seeking employment.”
The grants range between $1.8 million and $4.8 million. This brief dispatch on the New England Cable News website says Massachusetts will be receiving the largest allocation while neighboring Rhode Island will receive $3.3 million. The recipients are numerous agencies that provide career training and employment services to people with disabilities, including vocational rehabilitation, independent living centers, and other community and nonprofit organizations.
The press release on the ODEP website provides the full dollar amount for each state. While portions of the release have been published in Northwest Indiana Times and the Providence Journal; so far only the Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Lousiana, has published a comment from a state official about the impact of the program on its underserved population. Director of the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) Curtis Eysink says the grant enables his agency to “expand and enhance employment services” for the next four years:
The funding will help train LWC staff to work more effectively with people with different kinds of disabilities, to learn about and develop employment opportunities for them and to help them qualify for and get those jobs. The LWC’s program gives special priority to military veterans with disabilities, the homeless, individuals with developmental disabilities, mental illness and/or hidden disabilities, ex-offenders as well as individuals with significant disabilities.
By training personnel in organizations like the LWC to serve the employment needs of people with disabilities, the Disability Employment Initiative seeks to expand the public workforce’s participation in the Social Security Administration’s Ticket to Work program. According to the press release, this program helps agencies become “employment networks” that “expand the capacity of the department’s American Job Center.”
One of the 16 states already participating in the program is Arkansas. Pam Baccam of KTHV recently visited Abilities Unlimited in Hot Springs and filed the below report about the contract labor and employment services for people with disabilities and the impact it has on both a businesses bottom line and making life matter for these individuals.
Post any news about Massachusetts’ participation in the DEI in the Comments section below. Or share how you think people with disabilities in Massachusetts can participate in this program.
Image by the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the BPL.
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