Engaging Communities in Identifying Local Strategies for Expanding Integrated Employment during and after High School

Amidst decades of attention directed toward improving employment outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), few efforts have been made to engage communities in identifying local solutions for expanding integrated employment opportunities. We examined the implementati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities 2016-09, Vol.121 (5), p.398-418
Main Authors: Carter, Erik W, Blustein, Carly L, Bumble, Jennifer L, Harvey, Sarah, Henderson, Lynnette M, McMillan, Elise D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Change Strategies
Community
Community Relations
Cultural Capital
Developmental Disabilities
Developmental Disabilities - rehabilitation
Dialogs (Language)
Educational Change
Employers
Employment
Employment - standards
Employment Opportunities
Female
Group Discussion
Humans
Independent Living
Intellectual Disability
Intellectual Disability - rehabilitation
Intervention
Local Issues
Male
Middle Aged
People with disabilities
Program Development
Residence Characteristics
Schools
Seasonal employment
Severe Disabilities
State Agencies
Students with Disabilities
Studies
Systems Approach
Tennessee
Young adults
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Summary:Amidst decades of attention directed toward improving employment outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), few efforts have been made to engage communities in identifying local solutions for expanding integrated employment opportunities. We examined the implementation and outcomes of "community conversation" events held in 6 geographically and economically diverse locales. Each event used an asset-based dialogue approach called the World Café (Brown & Isaacs, 2005) to solicit ideas from a broad cross-section of community members on improving integrated employment that reflect local priorities and possibilities. Six key themes encapsulated the 1,556 strategies generated by the almost 400 attendees. Although considerable consistency was found among the categories of strategies raised across events, the manner in which those individual strategies would be implemented locally reflected the unique accent of each community. Attendees also viewed these events as promising and productive pathways for identifying next steps for their community. We offer recommendations for community-level intervention efforts and suggest directions for future research.
ISSN:1944-7515
1944-7558
DOI:10.1352/1944-7558-121.5.398