October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and all month we've been celebrating the many contributions of workers with disabilities and highlighting some of our work to remove the barriers that often prevent people with disabilities from working.

ACL awarded three grants totaling $1.35 million a year for five years to help develop and test model approaches for enhancing the quality, effectiveness, and monitoring of home and community-based services (HCBS) for people with developmental disabilities. The projects funded by the new grants began on October 1. 

According to the National Core Indicators (2015-2016), people with disabilities want to work, and both state and federal policy emphasize work as a priority for public supports. However, only 14% of individuals served by state intellectual and developmental disability agencies work in individual integrated jobs.

One aspect of the Administration for Community Living’s (ACL) mission is to assist American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Native Hawaiian Elders to live with dignity and self-determination, while participating fully in their communities. The Administration on Aging, which is part of ACL, implements this mission through its Older Americans Act programs and relationships with other federal agencies and their services.

Last week, HHS presented its National Disability Employment Awareness Month Observance. I was enthusiastic about the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion with Commissioner for the Administration on Disabilities Melissa Ortiz and Michael Murray from the Office of Personnel Management. My aim in the discussion was to share high level information, and highlight some of the NIDILRR-sponsored research, training, and knowledge translation activities in employment for people with disabilities conducted by ACL.

This week is National Retirement Savings Week and the occasion gives us an opportunity to highlight a success story. This story is how a 65-year old widow from Massachusetts was helped to recover her lost pension. One of our ACL grantees, The New England Pension Assistance Project helped this widow obtain her monthly benefit and retroactive lump sum from her deceased husband’s pension from the Massachusetts branch of the Service Employees’ International Union (SEIU) pension plan.

Just in case you missed it, Next Avenue recently announced their 2017 Influencers in Aging.

Two competitive grants have been awarded by ACL's Independent Living Administration to TIRR Memorial Hermann Health System for the Independent Living Research Utilizati

The Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) has developed several case studies about creating partnerships between community-based organizations (CBOs) and health care organizations.

The Administration for Community Living awarded 11 grants totaling $10,787,854 over a three-year period through the Alzheimer's Disease Initiative: Specialized Supportive Services (ADI-SSS) program, which builds and expands dementia capability in states and communities and fills gaps in services for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and their caregivers.