"Employment Update"
by Rob McInnes

ehabilitation Services Administration Grants
The Technical Assistance Center for Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders The Center on Disability Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa has been awarded a $2.5 million federal grant from the Rehabilitation Services Administration, U.S. Department of Education to establish the National Technical Assistance Center for Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders with Disabilities.
Contact: Dr. Robert A. Stodden at 808-956-9119 stodden@hawaii.edu

Competitive Grants Available from U.S. Dept. of Labor
The U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration (ETA), announces the availability of approximately $20 million to award competitive grants designed to enhance the employability, employment and career advancement of people with disabilities through enhanced service delivery in the new One-Stop delivery system established under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA).

Deadline: January 28, 2002 Contact: Ms. Yvonne Harrell, Grants Management Specialist, Fax (202) 693-2879. (All inquiries should include the SGA number (DFA 02-101) and a contact name, fax and phone numbers.) This announcement will also be published on the Internet on the ETA's disability online Home Page at: http://wdsc.doleta.gov/disability/

Update on Implementation of US Supreme Court Olmstead Ruling and Bush Order
On December 21, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson presented President Bush with a preliminary collective report on the HHS effort to comply with President Bush's Executive Order to implement the Olmstead Ruling. Thompson's report is called, "Delivering on the Promise: Preliminary Report of Federal Agencies' Actions to Eliminate Barriers and Promote Community Integration." Individual reports of the agencies carrying out the Executive Order will be presented to the President soon.

Here is part of the report from Thompson to the President.

EMPLOYMENT
If people with disabilities are to fully access and be a part of their communities, they must have the opportunity to work. Work is so essential that without it people with disabilities often face isolation and segregation from the very communities in which they wish to participate. The dignity, responsibility, and economic independence resulting from gainful employment is the most effective way of reducing dependency on public benefits, enhancing self-reliance, changing attitudes, and promoting community acceptance of persons with disabilities.

The multiple barriers to employment and economic empowerment of adults with disabilities include the fragmentation of existing employment services; the isolation and segregation of people with disabilities from mainstream programs and services; the lack of access to health insurance; the complexity of existing work incentives; the lack of control and choice in selection of providers and other agents; inadequate work opportunities resulting from attitudinal barriers based on historical and erroneous stereotypes; and the lack of accurate data on employment of people with disabilities needed to measure progress in eliminating barriers to their employment. The following actions are planned to help address these barriers and to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Department of Labor
Assuming that the President's FY 2002 Budget is passed in its proposed form, the following activities will be funded out of existing budgetary resources:

DOL's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) will initiate an Olmstead Community Employment Initiative, developing and implementing a coordinated strategy to ensure that all DOL policies and activities fully address the employment and training needs of people with disabilities who are at risk of institutionalization, or who are transitioning from institutions into the workplace and the community.

ODEP will award Olmstead Community Employment Planning and Implementation Grants to states that (1) develop an employment focus for persons with disabilities in their Olmstead state implementation plans and activities, and (2) incorporate activities coordinating employment and related supports at the state and local level. Recipients will be consortia of nonprofit advocacy or service agencies and Local Workforce Investment Boards (Local Boards). Activities will focus on increased capacity and coordination, as well as the provision of ongoing feedback to ODEP and other DOL agencies on effective implementation strategies.

DOL's ETA and ODEP will work together to disseminate promising practices and successful strategies being identified under the Work Incentive Grant Program, and to ensure close collaboration and the dissemination of information and technical assistance throughout the workforce system gleaned from the new ODEP Technical Assistance Grants.

ODEP will expand the Customized Employment Grant Initiative to 10 additional sites in FY 2002. These grants support Local Boards in systematically reviewing their policies and practices in terms of services to persons with disabilities, incorporating new and innovative practices, as appropriate, and developing comprehensive models of customized employment services and supports for individuals with significant disabilities.

ODEP will collaborate with ESA's Wage and Hour Division to develop training and technical assistance on increasing earnings and customized employment for individuals with significant disabilities earning commensurate wages under section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and disseminate this assistance to their stakeholder networks.

The Presidential Task Force on the Employment of Adults with Disabilities will convene the Youth Advisory Committee, composed of 15 young people (ages 14 to 28) with diverse disabilities and backgrounds to advise the Secretary of Labor and her designees (which include the Office of the 21st Century Workforce and the Office of Disability Employment Policy) on education, transition, employment, health, rehabilitation, and independent living issues affecting young people with disabilities.

ODEP will work with other DOL agencies, the Department of Education, and other appropriate federal departments on activities that promote the transition of young people with disabilities from school to post-secondary opportunities and/or employment, including researching, demonstrating, and disseminating successful strategies for transitioning young adults with significant disabilities into employment, and initiation of policy actions and implementation ensuring such strategies are utilized within DOL programs and activities.

Recipients of ODEP grants to fund model youth demonstration programs to increase the participation of youth with disabilities in workforce development activities will develop, implement, evaluate and disseminate new and/or improved strategies and techniques to increase youth participation and positive outcomes.

DOL will expand self-employment, small business, micro-enterprise development, and other entrepreneurial opportunities for people with disabilities who want to transition from institutions to their communities, or who are at risk of institutionalization or segregation. ODEP, in concert with the Task Force, will develop and implement an action plan with multiple DOL agencies to promote self-employment and small business development among people with disabilities, particularly those with the most significant disabilities.

DOL, with ODEP in the lead, will work with other agencies to increase One-Stop center employment services for people with psychiatric disabilities, including those transitioning to the community from institutions or those at risk of placement in residential facilities.

Robm@diversityworld.com is the email contact for Rob McInnes. EnabledOnline thanks Mr. McInnes for this month's Employment Update.