As more community-based providers of supports and services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) strive to reinvent themselves to offer inclusive opportunities and keep up with Employment First, WIOA, CMS Final Settings Rule, DOJ’s application of Olmstead to employment, and expectations of the ADA generation, organizational leadership may find themselves wondering how to accomplish such a feat. Where’s the finish line? Where’s the starting block?

The Arc believes that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities belong in the community and have fundamental moral, civil and constitutional rights to be fully included and actively participate in all aspects of society. The Arc is pleased to be working toward finding and sharing information to support its chapters on their journeys toward community employment with leading employment researchers as a sub-grantee of the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Advancing Employment for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, a project of ThinkWork! at the Institute for Community Inclusion at University of Massachusetts – Boston on a five-year National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) grant aimed at employment of people with I/DD. As part of this collaboration, staff from The Arc co-conducted interviews with leadership from eight organizations which have transformed their employment service delivery from sheltered work to competitive community employment. A brief sharing advice from those interviews was recently released telling us to Commit. Plan. Engage. Implement.

The next step in this collaboration is an intervention aimed at service providers to aide them in transforming their sheltered workshop models to community-based employment programs. This intervention will provide best practice information and other resources to service providers via a comprehensive toolkit.

We are currently looking for chapters to participate in our intervention pilot this summer. The pilot will be six weeks in duration and will consist of reviewing the toolkit, preliminary planning and implementation of pertinent best practices, and providing feedback to The Arc national staff to ensure that the final version of the toolkit is useful and will best support organizations with implementing the conversion process. If you are interested in learning more or participating in the pilot process, please contact Jonathan Lucus, Director of The Arc@Work at: lucus@thearc.org or at 202.534.3706.

9 thoughts on “Learning From Our Peers: Advice on Organizational Transformation From Those Who Have Done It

  1. I am the proprietor of JustCBD company (justcbdstore.com) and I am currently looking to grow my wholesale side of company. I really hope that anybody at targetdomain share some guidance ! I considered that the most ideal way to do this would be to reach out to vape stores and cbd retailers. I was really hoping if anybody at all could suggest a reputable website where I can purchase Vape Shop B2B Data List I am presently taking a look at creativebeartech.com, theeliquidboutique.co.uk and wowitloveithaveit.com. On the fence which one would be the very best choice and would appreciate any advice on this. Or would it be easier for me to scrape my own leads? Suggestions?

  2. May I just say what a comfort to find someone that really understands what they are discussing online. You definitely know how to bring a problem to light and make it important. More people ought to check this out and understand this side of the story. It’s surprising you’re not more popular given that you surely possess the gift.

  3. You need to be a part of a contest for one of the greatest websites on the internet. I most certainly will highly recommend this web site!

  4. I’m impressed, I must say. Rarely do I encounter a blog that’s both equally educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you’ve hit the nail on the head. The problem is something too few men and women are speaking intelligently about. I’m very happy that I stumbled across this during my hunt for something concerning this.

  5. Greetings! Very useful advice in this particular article! It is the little changes that will make the largest changes. Thanks a lot for sharing!

  6. You’re so interesting! I do not think I’ve read a single thing like this before. So wonderful to discover someone with a few genuine thoughts on this subject matter. Seriously.. thanks for starting this up. This web site is one thing that is needed on the internet, someone with a little originality!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *