Midwest Disability Employment Consortium (Kessler)
IA-Center for Disabilities and Development, UCEDD/LEND | |||
Program Type | UCEDD | Fiscal Year | 2020 |
Contact | Tamara Amsbaugh, BA | ||
[email protected] | |||
Phone | 515-281-8794 | ||
Project Description | |||
The Midwest Disability Employment Consortium, a partnership of the University Centers for Excellence on Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota, aims to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities. The consortium serves as the backbone for program implementation, evaluation, and dissemination/scaling up activities. It serves as a disability employment think tank in the Midwest, as well as a demonstration, evaluation and policy advisory hub. Project partners will work together to create a sustainable infrastructure to share information and best practices that are uniquely suited to meet the needs of people with disabilities in Midwest states. Additionally, as part of this project, the UCEDDs in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota representing three priority states as identified by the Kessler Foundation will implement model projects aimed at addressing state-specific concerns respective to the capacity of disability employment service systems through the creative use of technology. Each state shares common concerns related to balancing the needs of large rural communities, where access to job coaching and behavioral supports at the local level is challenging, with pockets of high population urban centers, where caseloads are often extremely large. Complicating this further is the fact that each state also faces a direct support workforce shortage. |