Employment First Collaboration
At the Division of Services for People with Disabilities, it is our mission to promote opportunities and provide supports for people with disabilities to lead self-determined lives.
Employment First is a movement to deliver meaningful employment, equitable wages, and career advancement for individuals with disabilities.
Individuals receiving services, their families, Support Coordinators, DSPD staff and providers all play distinct and important roles in advancing our mission. We all need to work together to accomplish this mission, particularly in the areas of competitive integrated employment*.
*Competitive integrated employment, or CIE, means that individuals with disabilities are able to work in the community with people of all abilities; and that they are paid at a rate comparable to those people without disabilities who work in the same place.
Our Key Values
Past Projects
Community Inclusion Project
At the Division of Services for People with Disabilities, it is our mission to promote opportunities and provide supports for people with disabilities to lead self-determined lives. Individuals receiving services, their families, Support Coordinators, DSPD staff and providers all play distinct and important roles in advancing our mission. We all need to work together to accomplish this mission, particularly in the areas of *competitive integrated employment and community inclusion.
- *Community Inclusion is the opportunity for individuals with disabilities to live in and have full access to their community to the same extent as those individuals without disabilities; while being valued and treated with dignity and respect. (reference: Copley, C. (2020, March 4).
- Competitive integrated employment, or CIE, means that individuals with disabilities are able to work in the community with people of all abilities; and that they are paid at a rate comparable to those people without disabilities who work in the same place.
Over the coming year we hope to work with you on two phases of a project to improve the disability system’s capacity to work together, find creative ways to overcome barriers, and communicate clear expectations for services that support individually determined community inclusion.
At the end of the two phases, the disability service system will have gained an understanding of barriers to inclusion, worked together to find solutions, and developed measures to gauge how our system is doing in reaching optimal outcomes for individuals in services to be integrated as they desire.
Phase 1
What is the purpose:
To identify, clarify and expound, and then prioritize the barriers in the disability service system that lead to a lack of competitive integrated employment and community inclusion.
What will take place:
The study will be conducted by a Ph.D. student from the University of Utah through completion and analysis of 3 surveys over the next 4 months.
Who will be involved:
The study will include selected persons from each stakeholder group including individuals receiving services, their families, providers, Support Coordinators, partners from other state agencies, and community advocacy groups. In order to have a manageable group size and represent all areas of the state, participants have been selected by DSPD for this phase of the project.
Phase 2
What is the purpose:
- To bring together a Community of Practice (CoP) to create a space where each group can collaborate, peer to peer, to talk through some solutions to the prioritized barriers developed in Phase 1. This will be an opportunity to consider goals and discuss how implementation of solutions is working for you or your agency.
- The CoP will also identify outcome measures related to competitive integrated employment and community inclusion. They will work together to determine how and what data will be collected for the outcome measures. This information will be compiled and available for public comment before it is finalized.
What will take place:
- The CoP will meet for approximately six months, with the frequency of meetings decided by the groups.
- Support from the State Employment Leadership Network (SELN) will be provided to include ideas from other states and national best practice principles to help guide conversations.
Who will be involved:
- This will include two separate groups: one of disability professionals and the other of individuals in services, their families, and other advocates.
- In order to have a manageable group size and represent all areas of the state, participants have been selected by DSPD for this phase of the project.
- DHS and DOH staff will be present to manage the logistics of the meeting, answer questions, and clarify any limitations or abilities of the state to support various ideas.