Students with significant disabilities typically experience poor postschool employment outcomes. However, when provided opportunities to work and engage within their communities, they can gain necessary work-specific and workplace social skills to improve outcomes. This article outlines a six-step model for community-based employment programs…

The study reports on a data-based work experience model for secondary students with autism. The objectives were to increase competency and independence, provide a variety of experiences to assess skills and preferences, and modify interfering behaviors. Five autistic students, aged 16-20, were sent to community work sites providing a variety of…

Age appropriate training programs in natural environments for deaf-blind adolescents help to develop functional skills, with the ultimate goal of independent living and work placement. Other approaches to the education of handicapped children entail activity for the sake of activity, or babysitting and fun activities. The actual training of a…

This study assessed the effects of a Brevard County (Florida) high school-based vocational training and community-based on-the-job training program called Brevard's Exceptional Students in Transition (BEST). Results indicated positive improvements in vocational skills and behaviors of participants in the BEST program. (JDD)

This paper describes a three-phase program which places students with disabilities into job sites in strip malls, enclosed malls, industrial parks, and individual businesses to prepare them for their transition to independent living. The paper explains that in phase 1 of the program students train at a different site each day; in phase 2, students…

This document contains (1) a monograph investigating and describing conditions under which it is cost-beneficial to operate an enriched YCCIP (Youth Community Conservation and Improvement Project) design and (2) a guidebook to work project enrichment. The first sections of the monograph focus on the attributes of an enriched YCCIP activity in…

Unemployment wage data were evaluated to assess employment, job retention, and wage progression for graduates of Community Jobs (CJ), a short-term public job creation program for the hard to employ in the state of Washington. The following were among the findings: (1) 66% of all participants were employed after graduating from CJ; (2) 53% were…