Vermont

Vermont's GCEPD program uses its bi-monthly newsletter, "Abilities", to provide stories, information, and resources about the employment of individuals with disabilities. Each issue focuses on a particular disability-related topic and usually highlights a successful employment scenario. An archive of these issues is available and could serve as an example to other MIG states.

Find two fact sheets; the first presents occupational employment projections for the three job titles that make up the direct-care workforce: nursing assistants, home health aides, and personal and home care aides, and suggests that over the next decade, the nation’s direct-care workforce will constitute the largest, fastest-growing group of jobs in the country. The second provides a detailed overview of the demographic and economic characteristics of the direct-care workforce.

Review summary findings from evaluations of ADRCs done by entities external to the ADRCs and/or for purposes beyond routine semi-annual reporting (SART). Studies are arranged by topics covering a range of activities including access to services, outreach and marketing, consumer satisfaction and cost effectiveness.

View an evaluation and grantee-written descriptions of Job Access and Reverse Commute (JARC) and New Freedom services for 2007 and 2008. JARC was established to address transportation challenges that welfare recipients and low-income individuals face in finding and keeping jobs. The New Freedom program was established to provide new public transportation services and alternatives to public transportation for people with disabilities.

Explore the website for an initiative designed to make the business case for employers to hire people with disabilities by providing them with information, tools to integrate people with disabilities into the workforce, and local resources to help them access this segment of the labor pool. The site includes individual state pages to connect interested businesses to each state’s resources for recruiting and hiring people with disabilities, and tools such as a Tax Incentives Tip Sheet.

Explore how Medicaid policies have been used in some states to expand the range and availability of services. Third in a series, this brief explains why these policies lead to so much variation in current state Medicaid long-term care programs. It also draws lessons from innovative states to suggest reforms in national Medicaid policies that would make home and community based services accessible to more program participants.

Are you an advocate, program administrator, service provider or caregiver fighting for your state and local caregiver support programs? This report includes background information, statistics, talking points and a list of additional resources to help make the case for maintaining public funding for crucial caregiver support services. Additional resources are listed, as well as a chart detailing prevalence and economic value of family caregiving by state.

AARP has produced a set of state-by-state briefs that highlight the most up-to-date long-term care data for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Information is provided about each state's older population, long-term care funding, the cost and ranking of nursing homes, and long-term care insurance. The data utilized in these reports is the most recent publicly available data collected for all states.

Is telecommuting a viable option for the disabled? The state of Vermont sent its’ Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors a self assessment asking just that, as well as a document outlying the risks of direct selling and multi-level marketing. The information in these documents provide counselors with a tool to help disabled workers find and retain work, and provide a general outline of information, including links to national online resources, which could be useful to any state.

The Vermont Offset Pilot Demonstration is one of four state pilots initiated as a first step in preparing for the BOND demonstration. It's purpose is to test whether changing SSDI rules to provide a glide ramp off SSDI cash benefits would encourage more beneficiaries to work at a high enough level to reduce or eliminate cash benefit payments. The findings provide invaluable information on the issues of implementing such a complex federal project within widely variable state systems.