PCPID Quarterly Meeting: September 26–27, 2011

Cathy Ficker-Terrill Discussion Summary for Development of Report to the President

Employment

Core values

• People with intellectual disabilities deserve full and lifelong inclusion in all aspects of community living, including integrated employment opportunities and the chance to earn and maintain financial resources.
• Individuals with intellectual disabilities, when given appropriate support, achieve strong competitive employment outcomes aligned with their personal goals.
• All individuals, including people with intellectual disabilities, can work in integrated settings for competitive wages, and should be supported to pursue employment consistent with their strengths, talents, gifts and interests.

Opportunities

1. Create employer incentives for hiring people with ID
   • Create opportunities to support, incentives; inform the attitudes of employers and potential employers
   • Both public sector and private sector (for profit and non-profit) should have incentives for employing people with IDD
   • Create incentives and/or tax breaks to hire people with ID
   • Establish tax credits for small business employers to hire people with ID
   • Promote employer incentives, models, and demonstrations of “customized” person centered work options
   • The fiscal supports should provide incentives for gainful employment for individuals with IDD
   • Create employer incentives and employer demonstrations.
2. Prepare people with disabilities for work
   • Increase employment for people with ID partnerships and training (strengthen pre- employment skills) to include family involvement, school, home
   • Expect that all PWD want to work and prepare them to work
   • Create opportunities to demonstrate, practice, build skills, grow networks that can lead to employment, ex. National Service, paid internships, volunteering
3. Refocus majority of existing funds away from congregate/sheltered workshop/settings to integrated and competitive employment.
   • Federal policy and programs should focus on employment first and provide financial incentives to providers to move toward integrated employment.
   • Refocus majority of existing funds away from congregate/sheltered workshop/settings to integrated and competitive employment.
   • Create incentives for day program providers to move people to employment.
   • Refocus existing day resources to promote employment.
   • Federal resources must be used effectively and efficiently for the outcome of employment for people with disabilities.
   • Schools need to better prepare people with ID for employment.
   • Talk to kids and students about employment at the high school levels.
   • Refocus existing resources to promote integrated employment, starting at transition.
   • Maintain and expend investment in IDEA and Rehab Act to focus on transition to adult life, including employment for youth with ID/DD.
   • Transition from school to work, present system to future system, should be the focus of collaborative and creative areas of education/ private/ government and community systems.
4. Remove economic disincentives to employment.
   • Abolish disincentives to employment for PWD.
   • Remove income limits governing benefit programs.
   • Increase incentives to work and remove income limits for benefit programs for individuals w ID.
   • Remove economic disincentives to employment.
5. Create a national public campaign to build awareness of employment
   • Create a national public campaign to build awareness of employment, find ways to create employer incentives in hiring
   • An effort is made to highlight companies and businesses that are already hiring people with ID (Walgreen’s, B of A, Marriott, Project Search, and encourage others.
   • Create diverse vehicles for encouraging employers to hire People with Intellectual Disabilities. ex. a visual narrated production, a talk show on employment with an inclusive and a performing arts presentation.
   • Provide grants/incentives programs to help train people with intellectual disabilities to perform skilled work. In addition, provide funds and resources to market the skilled potential employees. (get the word out)
   • Emphasize public awareness through the media and a variety of different techniques relative to the critical needs of employing people with intellectual disabilities.
6. Include people with intellectual disabilities in the nation’s commitment and to putting people to work
   • All people need an opportunity to become as independent/self sufficient as their abilities allow.
   • Include people with intellectual disabilities in the nation’s commitment and to putting people to work.
   • Preserve avenues to integrated employment opportunities.
   • Pursuing traditional employment for people w/IDD reduces their demand for government. Supported frees up funds to support those more severely affected.
   • All individuals with intellectual disabilities can contribute to the communities in which they live.
   • Give all people a chance to have jobs/careers of their choice.
7. The federal government should model more forcefully the hiring of people with ID
   • Encouraging MOV's between RSA, DOL, and OPM to create a searchable database of vocational rehabilitation consumers for use by Federal and private hiring managers and HR professionals. (Gov. is currently spending money on private companies to do smaller scale data bases when we could use workforce recruitment program model receiving/benefiting from Federal subsidies)
   • The federal government should model more forcefully the hiring of people with ID by creating more useful tools and databases containing resumes of such Americans
8. Preserve some supported employment opportunities like enclaves for those unable to achieve independent employment
9. The federal government should ensure that meaningful metrics are in place to hold senior leaders accountable for the recommendations in this report
10. Public Private sector
    • Promote employment of people with ID in the public/private workplace
    • Work with public and private sector to promote employment opportunities for persons with intellectual disabilities
11. Transportation
    • Employment opportunity needs supports, ie. transportation, accessibility, accommodations, training
    • By strongly supporting the efforts of the US Department of Transportation to spear head accessible and safe transportation systems, Americans with intellectual Disabilities have more opportunities to American's jobs
12. Importance of maintaining educational programs and transition programs that have employment as a clear end goal
13. Employment of people w/IDD creates a more loyal workforce, which also inspires the traditionally developing employees
14. Identify and invest in innovative approaches that have proven effective in helping persons w/IDD obtain sustained employment
15. Call for increasing or doubling integrated employment by 2014
16. Equal Opportunity for Work
    • Promote equal opportunity in employment
    • Importance of employment and to quality of life for individuals and ultimately to decreasing financial burden on the government and maintaining programs that achieve it
    • Employment for adults with ID is essential for a life of dignity
    • All people regardless of disability have the opportunity to work in the community with equal pay
    • People with ID have as much to give and are as dedicated to work as those in the general population they deserve meaningful employment and of course equal pay for their work as all others
    • People with intellectual disabilities should have the same opportunities to participate in employment as all Americans
17. Any reforms of entitlement programs or discretionary programs should support growth in employment opportunities for people with I/DD
    • Improve coordination of federal programs that are aimed at improving employment outcomes of persons with ID
    • Endorse and expand state employment first agendas with a focus on self-determination
    • Employment addresses more than simply reverence revenue generation, such as: establishing friendships, improving sense of self-worth, huge step towards true community integration, its natural not constructed
    • Any reforms of entitlement programs or discretionary programs should support growth in employment opportunities for people with I/DD
18. Create opportunities for continuing vocational training into adulthood

Risks

1. Lose a richly diverse and productive staff
   • Lack of training to prepare for employment, loss of trained workforce
   • Employees will lose a richly diverse and productive staff persons if unable to employ
2. Wastes millions spent in education of children
   • Removing incentives to employment will increase deficit
   • Limiting employment opportunities wastes millions spent in education of children with intellectual disabilities as a result of IDEA
3. Limit opportunity for PWD's to generate assets
   • Limiting employment eliminates tax revenue spent by people with ID who earn
   • Cuts in employment programs limit opportunity for PWD's to generate assets
4. No public awareness
   • Budget cuts will decrease funding for increased public awareness relative to employers hiring more readily, people w/IDD
5. Waste of an important national resource
   • Increase employment, decrease dependence on benefits
   • What is lost when people are not employed, when people with ID have dignity are productive, contribute, pay taxes and are citizens of communities
   • Waste of an important national resource for no product with IDD
   • The country won’t come to have the goal of putting people back to work
   • Cutting funds that allow PID's to engage in employment preparatory activities results in whole groups of people who cannot contribute to their community, to the GDP, etc. who receive but aren't able to contribute
6. Non-disabled family members to lose jobs
   • Cutting back on entitlement/discretionary programs that support families will force more individuals to leave workforce to stay home as caregivers
   • Medicaid LTSS cuts could force non-disabled family members to lose jobs to care for loved ones, further increasing unemployment and recessionary pressures
   • Family members may have to quit their jobs to care, this reducing tap revenue and increasing HHS costs
   • Cutting employment programs not only limit possibility for PWIDD- families often are unable to work because PWIDD is at home needs supervision
   • Without employment people would become less or fully dependent on family
7. Increased need for government subsidiary, housing, health, income
8. More ID people will be in the streets and emergency rooms, shelters etc.
9. People with ID would not be able to work
   • People won’t have jobs
   • People with IDD will be less likely to secure competitive employment thus increasing their reliance and cost of HSS support services
   • Decreased opportunity and actual experiences of equitable life situation (personal)
   • Supports for individuals with IDD to engage in gainful employment, decreasing reliance on government funded services could be eliminated
   • The ID will be thought about last because of the crisis in jobs (lack thereof)
   • More homelessness and increased health problems (societal)
   • Cutting Medicaid investment and H.C.B.S. and V.R etc, will lead to the higher rates of unemployment many PID- of whom 85% are already not employed and increase long term costs
   • Cuts in employment programs and minimal job opportunities in the private sector would force people to remain at home
   • People with ID would not be able to work and become fully dependent on benefits not contribute to society
   • People with IDD will get lost in the shuffle as policy makers focus on lowering the 9.2%
   • unemployment rate- their needs/rights will be at bottom of priority list
   • ID will never achieve their goal of independence and self-sufficiency
   • People working with those with ID in programs lose their jobs
10. Eliminating employment opportunities results in isolation
    • If employment opportunities for PID are severely limited, we will create a class of people who may become shut-ins we will diminish economic opportunities for communities and for the United States, and we will create long-term health effects on caregivers
    • Eliminating employment opportunities results in isolation
11. The support staff will be unemployed, taxes, and needing new skill set to change jobs
12. The human rights of ID will be taken from them if employment opportunities do not exist
    • If employment opportunities for PID are severely limited, we will create a class of people who may become shut-ins we will diminish economic opportunities for communities and for the United States, and we will create long-term health effects on caregivers