Text Overview of the Inclusive Career Pathways Roadmap

The LEAD Center Inclusive Career Pathways Roadmap is an interactive online tool that provides workforce professionals with resources to help people with disabilities achieve employment and economic self-sufficiency. The visual is of a Roadmap with five traffic circles, which are called “drivers” on the Roadmap because they are drivers of change. You can select any of the five drivers to begin your journey on the Inclusive Career Pathways Roadmap. In addition, there are two Roadside Assistance signs, which say Want to Drive Change? and Need Technical Assistance? These both offer further information and resources.

The drivers are: Capacity Building, Accessibility, Partnerships, Youth with Disabilities, and Employer Connections. Use the following links to access Resources, possible Actions, Questions for your team, and Examples of promising practices for the topics linked to each driver. The Roadmap leads to the destination of Employment and Economic Self-Sufficiency.

Driver: Capacity Building

• Customized Employment
• Promising Practices
• Targeted Technical Assistance (TA)
• Work Incentives & Benefits Planning

Driver: Accessibility

• Accommodations
• AJC Certification
• Assistive Technology
• WIOA Section 188 Disability Reference Guide

Driver: Partnerships

• Co-Enrollment & Integrated Resource Teams (IRTs)
• Cross-Title/Cross-System Activities
• Resource Coordination
• Veterans Employment

Driver: Youth with Disabilities

• Financial Literacy
• Guideposts for Success
• Partnerships
• Work-based Learning

Driver: Employer Connections

• Apprenticeships, On-the-Job Trainings (OJTs), Work-based Learning
• Benefits to Employers and Return on Investment (ROI)
• Coordination Between Systems
• Diverse & Reverse Career Fairs

Want to Drive Change?

In the Want to Drive Change? technical assistance roadside assistance sign, you can learn more about how to make change happen by using these three special resources found on the LEAD Center site.

• Program Implementation: Making It More Successful (PDF)
  This 26-page PowerPoint style presentation by WINTAC summarizes the NIRN, explains 8 implementation drivers, and will help you assess your organization’s WIOA implementation status.
• Making It Happen: Implementation Drivers of Change (PDF)
  Find out how state/local systems can achieve a systems-level change, transform partnerships, and reach a new normal.
• Implementation Science, Drivers and Stages (PDF)
  An explanation of the aspects of implementation to help you understand how it can be used.

Need Technical Assistance?

If you are looking for technical assistance for your state or program, the Need Technical Assistance? roadside assistance sign will take you to  websites that offer training, technical assistance, resources, and training guides  through a link to the LEAD Center’s Knowledge Translation (KT) Consortium, which has been sponsored by the LEAD Center since 2012.

The KT Consortium brings together more than 30 federally-funded Training and Technical Assistance Centers, each with their own unique mission addressing:

• Different aspects of employment,
• Career readiness and development,
• Transition, and
• Accessibility for youth and adults with disabilities.

Access their resources and learn about the availability of technical assistance to support your work in creating inclusive career pathways programs for youth/adults with disabilities and others that face barriers to employment.

 

Return to the Career Pathways Roadmap.

Return to the LEAD Center homepage.

The LEAD Center just launched self-paced trainings on popular topics, including Customized Employment, Guided Group Discovery, and Financial Literacy. Participants can learn at their own pace, test their knowledge around key concepts, and obtain a completion certificate for each course. If you do not already have an account, register now on the NDI Online Classroom to access the LEAD Center courses and take advantage of this new training opportunity. Individuals who complete a course can earn credits towards becoming a Certified Employment Support Professional (CESP™). Contact APSE for more information about CESP™ certification.

 

ACCESS NATIONAL DISABILITY INSTITUTE'S (NDI) ONLINE CLASSROOM

 

Courses include:

Customized Employment: Moving Beyond the Basics 
 
Build your understanding of Customized Employment and your ability to use this innovative proven employment practice with people you serve. This training explores how to use information gathered during Discovery to connect job seekers to a vast array of employment opportunities using an alternative approach to job development that is effective for a variety of job seekers with barriers to employment, including job seekers with disabilities.

Customized Employment: Success Through Partnerships
 
Continue to build your understanding of Customized Employment and learn about people who are involved in implementing WIOA, directly or as a partner. This training highlights successful implementation of Customized Employment practices, including Guided Group Discovery and Self-Guided Discovery, in different parts of the country and provides resources to assist in replicating Customized Employment approaches.

 

Guided Group Discovery: Paving the Way to Employment

This course shares materials you can use to implement Guided Group Discovery through cross-system partnerships. You will learn about the many pilot projects in which Guided Group Discovery has been used, and hear from implementers from the public workforce system, their disability partners, and someone who has benefitted from the process. This course also discusses possible applications for youth and adults with disabilities, veterans, and people involved in the justice system who are seeking employment.

Financial Literacy and the Workforce Development System

This training features representatives from the Department of Labor (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), the City of Louisville’s Metro Community Services workgroup on Workforce and Financial Empowerment, and DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA). Presenters share financial literacy tools and resources to integrate within your workforce development services to equip the individuals you serve with the financial knowledge they need to improve their employment and economic advancement outcomes.

The road to Inclusive Career Pathways can be difficult for stakeholders and workforce professionals to navigate. The destination is achieving Employment and Economic Self-Sufficiency for people with disabilities. Getting there is the tricky part. To guide you on your route, the LEAD Center has created an online tool that contains the questions to ask, the actions to take and the resources and examples that will lead the way.

Join us on February 20 for the official release of the LEAD Center’s new Inclusive Career Pathways Roadmap. LEAD Center staff will walk attendees through the easy-to-use online tool, which draws together a collection of information from multiple states, including strategies collected nationally from Disability Employment Initiative (DEI) projects and LEAD’s work on the Promising Practices in Achieving Nondiscrimination and Equal Opportunity: A Section 188 Disability Reference Guide. This information informs the “drivers” behind the “road signs” (or categories) on the road to Inclusive Career Pathways, focused on Capacity Building, Accessibility, Partnerships, Youth, and Employer Connections.

LEAD Center staff, Federal partners, and state leaders will highlight ways to use the Roadmap to strengthen their Career Pathways programs and partnerships, making their services more inclusive for youth and adults with disabilities and others who experience barriers to employment.

The webinar will take place on Wednesday, February 20, 2019, from 3:00-4:30 p.m. ET. 

Register for this webinar by clicking or copying and pasting the following link: 

https://leadcenter.webex.com/leadcenter/onstage/g.php?MTID=e5d8b54ad5314660308290d7f6f8a9043

 

Please note: All LEAD Center webinars are captioned and presentation materials are sent to participants in advance of the webinar. For any other reasonable accommodation requests, please contact Al Milioto at amilioto@ndi-inc.org.

 

Finding resources and creative ways to increase the success of individuals with disabilities in securing Competitive Integrated Employment often begins with navigating the Career Pathways landscape.

One of the barriers to Competitive Integrated Employment for individuals with disabilities is access to, and success in, the Post-Secondary environment. Lack of funding, the need to balance education and a job, transportation concerns and many other issues make participation in post-secondary education or career-related training -- which would open opportunities for a more financially self-sustaining career -- a challenge that many face.

One resource that recognizes the need to make college more accessible and affordable for high school students, college students and adult learners with and without disabilities is Modern States.

Modern States is the New York-based charitable organization behind the effort. Modern States has funded production of online courses taught by college professors. The courses prepare students for introductory College Level Examination Program (CLEP) exams in Economics, Sociology, Algebra and other areas.

Join us for an online presentation and discussion on December 11 to hear more about this initiative, which has been dubbed “Freshman Year for Free.” David Vise, Executive Director of Modern States Education Alliance, will share the history and concept behind the initiative, discuss which classes taught by top quality college professors are available, and how to enroll and participate. David also will answer questions on how to make this type of continuing education a part of a plan, providing forward momentum on a higher education pathway.