The Administration for Community Living (ACL) and partners from across the federal government jointly developed two new resources to help expand opportunities for competitive, integrated employment (CIE) for people with disabilities. CIE – jobs alongside coworkers with and without disabilities, in integrated settings in the community, at competitive wages, and with opportunities for advancement – is a critical part of community living.
- Resource Leveraging & Service Coordination to Increase Competitive Integrated Employment for Individuals with Disabilities: This resource provides guidance on how state and local governments can blend, braid, and sequence funding to proactively maximize resources from a range of federal programs to improve CIE outcomes for transition-age youth and adults with disabilities. A companion document answers frequently asked questions, provides examples and best practices, and identifies federal resources and programs that can be used for CIE. These resources were designed to help agencies recognize how they can collaborate and coordinate to serve job seekers with disabilities.
These resources were developed through a partnership among ACL, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration from the Department of Health and Human Services; the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy and Employment and Training Administration; the Department of Education’s Rehabilitation Services Administration and Office of Special Education Programs in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services; and the Social Security Administration Office of Retirement and Disability Policy.
- A Framework for Community Engagement – A Pathway to Competitive Integrated Employment: This resource, developed for both policymakers and service providers, presents a joint Federal vision for community engagement by individuals with disabilities. Community engagement, supported by a variety of service systems, enables individuals with disabilities to expand skills and experience so that they may secure high-quality and personally satisfying jobs and careers along with the benefits of employment. In addition to explaining what community engagement means and its benefits, this resource contains information about the wide variety of services that, when provided together, expand opportunities for youth and adults with disabilities to achieve CIE.
This document was developed through a partnership among ACL and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; the Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services; and the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy.
CIE is critical to ACL’s mission of community living. It offers a direct pathway to greater independence and self-sufficiency for youth and adults with disabilities and opportunities for community inclusion. “Coordinating federal resources will help address the challenges youth with disabilities too often face as they transition from education to employment and reverse the historically low labor force participation rate of adults with disabilities that limits their opportunities to fully contribute as colleagues, business owners, and taxpayers,” said Alison Barkoff, ACL’s Acting Administrator and Assistant Secretary for Aging. “These new resources reflect ACL’s commitment to collaborating with federal partners on our shared goal to advance opportunities for CIE for people with disabilities.”
More Information
- Learn about ACL’s Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center
- Read the new issue brief summarizing the research supporting CIE from ACL’s National Institute on Disability Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR).