Minnesota Technical Assistance Project
| MA-Institute for Community Inclusion/Boston Children's Hospital, UCEDD/LEND | |||
| Program Type | UCEDD | Fiscal Year | 2020 |
| Contact | Cindy Thomas, MS, CCRC | ||
| [email protected] | |||
| Phone | 617-287-4312 | ||
| Project Description | |||
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The Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston (ICI-Boston), in partnership with the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota (ICI-Minnesota), and Strengths at Work LLC, are proposing an innovative technical assistance project to expand and build robust capacity of service providers in Minnesota to assist and support individuals with intellectual developmental disabilities to succeed in employment, with a particular emphasis on those with more significant disabilities, strengthening transition outcomes in terms of employment, and identifying policy and practice issues to sustain these efforts on a system-wide basis. This project will consist of the following: Via a request for proposal process, employment service providers in Minnesota interested in expanding their capacity to assist individuals to succeed in integrated employment will apply for technical assistance (N=2 cohorts of six providers each over the project period). Technical assistance (TA) will be provided via distance and in-person methods for up to 12 MN employment service providers (Two cohorts, Six providers each) Facilitation of a project partnership group consisting of key agencies and stakeholders (including DHS, MDE, VR, MN-APSE, MARP, and others) that will work with the project on identification of and addressing system policy and practice issues, with a particular emphasis on cross-agency issues. The project will be evaluated via a series of ongoing quantitative and qualitative data collection efforts that will support ongoing quality assurance efforts, as well as an end-of-project summary evaluation, with a strong emphasis on achieving quality employment outcomes for individuals in a sustained way. The basis for the projects efforts will be the 10 core elements for successful organizational transformation to community employment supports, that have been developed by the RRTC on Advancing Employment for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities based at ICI-Boston, in conjunction with ICI-Bostons innovative work regarding community life engagement. All TA efforts will be aligned the new Minnesota DHS Employment Services framework, and fully supported the employment and community integration goals of the Minnesota Olmstead Plan. |
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