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…

Recently, consensus among researchers and professionals has emerged about factors that contribute to postschool success of youth with disabilities. Prominent among these factors are targeted academic preparation, family involvement, youth empowerment, and service collaboration and linkages. Work experience and paid employment have been identified…

The budget for the U.S. Department of Labor for Fiscal Year 2010 includes a total of $45 million to support and study transitional jobs. This paper describes the origins of the transitional jobs models that are operating today, reviews the evidence on the effectiveness of this approach and other subsidized employment models, and offers some…

Supported Employment is an evidence-based practice that helps people with mental illness find and keep meaningful jobs in the community. Given these outcomes the challenge for Supported Employment programs is to rethink the emphasis on immediate work for everyone and help consumers utilize appropriate education and training opportunities available…

This review of the literature on supported employment for individuals with severe disabilities begins by outlining two Federal definitions of supported employment and noting their similarities. Literature on approaches to supported employment is examined, focusing on individual jobs at distributed or scattered sites, enclaves, mobile crews, and…

The compendium presents a view of 70 programs participating in the Illinois supported employment initiative. A preliminary chapter analyzes the implementation of supported employment in Illinois. It provides a brief history of the Illinois supported employment initiative, describes the Illinois Supported Employment Project, examines the impact of…

This paper describes a successful model of supported employment developed by a single small agency previously providing services as a segregated day activity center. Included is discussion of the service agency, program methodology, barriers to successful community-based employment, manner in which barriers were overcome, program outcomes, and…

The monograph presents preliminary results from 27 states that received systems change model demonstration funds from the U.S. Rehabilitation Services Administration in 1986 and 1987. These funds were targeted to modify existing adult day programs for persons with severe disabilities and provide supported employment programs as alternative…

The final report of the Head Injury Re-entry Project (Project HIRe) describes activities of this 3-year (1987 to 1990) project, which used a "best practices" model approach and a community-based employment strategy with persons having traumatic brain injury (TBI) in nonurban areas. Among 15 project accomplishments are the following: (1)…

The Dispersed Heterogeneous Placement (DHP) supported employment project involved dispersal of three to five consumers across several departments/areas in a larger business or across several businesses in close proximity. The individuals placed had a wide range of talents and disability severity levels. Typically, a four-person site might have one…

This volume discusses the effects of supported employment on persons with developmental and other severe disabilities, by assembling the results of research investigations conducted by the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Supported Employment. Papers included are: "Supported Employment in Virginia: 1980-1988" (John Kregel…

This document details the 2-year results of the New Hope Project, which was conducted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to reduce poverty, reform welfare, and improve the overall well-being of poor people by providing a mix of incentives and services, including supplemental income, child care subsidies, guaranteed affordable health insurance, and…

The Continental Project is a school-to-work transition program for students with disabilities. The 6-year old program, which is located at a country club and golf course, serves more than 20 students per year and has successfully transitioned 45 young adults with moderate to severe handicaps into the workforce. The program is a cooperative effort…

One strategy to increase participation in vocational education and training (VET) by Australians with a disability involves intervention at the secondary school level to reduce early school leaving by providing structured VET learning and work placement opportunities. The Enterprise Career Education Foundation's Lighthouse initiative, which was…