This research identifies the soft (employability) skills that key stakeholders view as essential for young people with intellectual disability (ID) to gain and maintain open employment. The study subsequently examined the work experience opportunities for young people with ID to develop these soft skills during their school years. Qualitative data…

Background: The study reports the findings of an evaluation of Project SEARCH UK. The programme develops internships for young people with intellectual disabilities who are about to leave school or college. The aim of the evaluation was to investigate at what rate Project SEARCH provided employment opportunities to participants. Methods: The…

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…

Background: Prior research reveals high unemployment rates among homeless young adults. The literature offers many examples of using evidence-based supported employment models with vulnerable populations to assist them in obtaining and maintaining competitive employment; yet few examples exist to date with homeless young adults with mental…

Rehabilitation counselors and practitioners are under increased pressure to adopt and pursue evidenced-based practices, and the rehabilitation counseling literature has been criticized for a lack of empirical work providing support for individual-level interventions. The purpose of this literature review was to examine the last 25 years of…

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…

The authors compared 2 approaches to vocational rehabilitation for individuals with severe mental illness: the individual placement and support (IPS) model of supported employment and the diversified placement approach (DPA), which emphasizes work readiness and offers a range of vocational options, including agency-run businesses and…

Examined large sample of consecutive cases whose individuals participated in intensive transitional job-coaching program akin to job-coaching strategy emphasized within supported employment model. Findings from 84 consecutive cases illustrated effectiveness of transitional job coaching model to assist individuals with acquired brain injury in…

A national survey in which 42 state/territorial systems responded found that a total of 74,960 individuals participated in supported employment in 1991 with 62.8% of participants classified as mentally retarded of which 30.4% were moderately retarded and 8.7% severely or profoundly retarded. The individual placement model was most common. A…

Background: "Supported" employment stipulates that disabled people should have real jobs for real pay. This paper models kinds of supported employment, assesses how the support and placement features affect its outcomes and its quality from the perspective of the employees, and provides a dynamic model to help explore what types of interventions…

The "place-train" model of supported employment, appropriate for developmental disability, must be replaced by a "choose-get-keep" model for supported employment of people with psychiatric disabilities. Key model concepts include client job choice, development of job seeking skills, and application of appropriate job behaviors. (Author/DB)

This paper describes the TEACCH (Teaching and Educating Autistic and related Communication Handicapped Children and Adults) program, which has provided supported employment services to over 100 clients with autism. Three models of supported employment used by the program are discussed, as are program demographics and long-term support mechanisms.…

The first of three studies on interagency activity among state agencies delivering or funding employment services focuses on identifying exemplary models and strategies used in interagency agreements to improve delivery of supported employment services. Interagency agreements were most frequent with state agencies that specialized in or had…