Proposals

When Congress created SSDI in 1956, disability and employability were viewed as mutually exclusive states. As a result, the 1956 law defines disability as the “inability to engage in a substantial gainful activity in the U.S. economy”—in other words, the inability to work. This proposal would assist workers with work-limiting disabilities to remain in their current jobs or to transition to more suitable jobs and would assist employers to accommodate workers to perform their jobs.

Alaska's Supported Employment Task Force has created a Strategic Action Plan for increasing the number of people with developmental disabilities receiving supported employment services and how to most effectively shape protocol to assist employees and employers. Attached are a proposed funding matrix and a strategic action plan for employment services for individuals with behavioral health disabilities. These sample documents may be useful for other states implementing similar programs.

Looking for a sample strategic MIG plan? Through the NYS Strategic Plan, the MISCC Employment committee and New York Makes Work Pay team have developed and implemented a set of cross-systems strategic recommendations to close the employment gap through executive, legislative and budgetary action. Find the Strategic Plan, as well as a link to the New York Makes Work Pay website.

As part of its MIG grant, Rhode Island’s Executive Office of Health & Human Services members were asked to join at least one of six workgroups. This paper is the culmination of the work performed and the recommendations of the committed group of individuals who are the Global Waiver Task Force Employment Workgroup. Seven corresponding attachments are also attached. These samples could be helpful to other MIG grantees or states looking to start a program of their own.

This report focuses on creating a more balanced delivery system by expanding home and community-based services and reducing reliance on institutional care where possible is a major goal for virtually all states and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The paper concludes by summarizing initiatives and drawing implications for the future financing of home and community-based services.

The proportion of long-term care spending that goes to institutional care has been dropping over time, from 81 percent in 1995 to 63 percent in 2005. However, there remains significant concern that many people who would prefer to receive care in the community are unable to do so because of what has been termed the ‘institutional bias’ of Medicaid. This report discusses the issues surrounding efforts underway to shift the balance toward HCBS in the state of Pennsylvania.

As part of Research on Program Management Techniques by States to Rebalance their Long Term Care Systems, Final Case Studies were conducted in each State for the time period ending December 2007. These Case Studies focus particularly on the reflections of State government officials on rebalancing goals, accomplishments, and next steps as they reflect on all the State’s experiences in moving towards more community-based services.

A diverse team of agency administrators, partner organizations, and technical assistance providers collaborated to begin the process of creating a comprehensive and coordinated statewide employment support system. This map is the first product of the process and identifies “enabling prerequisites” for creating a more detailed strategic plan. Ten goals are articulated as guidelines for further progress.

The goal of this copyrighted program is to help those facing the most significant challenges to employment to gain economic self-sufficiency. The two-tiered “train the trainer” strategy includes career development curriculum for counselors to develop necessary skills. Counselors then conduct workshops with customers to develop portfolios of skills and strengths. Resources available here include the proposal, an introductory presentation and brochure, and trainer and participant manuals.

Here are materials used to develop a one-stop employment website to help Washingtonians with disabilities find local career information and supports. The proposal offers a needs statement, a project plan, detailed budget and staffing needs, and a draft of the top-level organization scheme for the site. The presentation slides were used as part of a focus group study to determine which information and tools would be most useful on the site.