January 2021 Newsletter
Indiana’s “Work to Include” Coalition
Advancing Employment for Individuals with Disabilities
“The unemployment rate among adult Americans with disabilities who want to work and can work is over 60 percent. That is a blot on our national character.” – Senator Tom Harkin in his farewell speech to the U.S. Senate
Work to Include 2021
The Work to Include Coalition has benefitted from two years of funding from the Indiana Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities. We are extremely grateful and excited to announce another year of funding and wanted to share WTI accomplishments to date and our goals for 2021.
Our Year 1 grant focused on outreach and dissemination of information about the Employment First legislation passed in 2017 and gather ideas from people with disabilities across the state about how to address the poor employment outcomes. We held eleven Town Hall events and spoke with over 400 people about employment barriers. Results of those town halls are on our website and where shared with state policy makers. Perhaps the single biggest outcome was the formulation of 11 local teams across the state to focus on Employment First locally.
In Year 2 WTI brought together advocates, state agency heads, and community members to share their Employment First efforts and learn about established Employment First programs in Michigan and Ohio. The discussion provided a foundation for systems change recommendations, including establishing an Indiana Office of Employment First. In response to our Town Hall results, WTI designed a website with resources for the first ever statewide Disability Employment Awareness campaign held during October 2020. The website houses and Employer Toolkit with 11 fact sheets for employers, posters, press releases, and other public relations material.
For 2021, WTI will focus on implementing and supporting some of the recommendations contained in the state Employment First Plan passed by the Indiana Rehabilitation Services Commission in 2020. Our three main focus areas will be Systems Change, Coalition Membership and Support, and Education and Awareness. The following is a summary of the key activities planned:
Coalition Membership
& Support
Increase efforts to hire people with disabilities across state government at all levels
Work with state agencies to design a Report Card on disability employment status
Establish goals to increase employment outcomes in all state agencies.
Get support for state-level Employment First plan oversight and implementation.
Systems Change
Increase efforts to hire people with disabilities across state government at all levels
Work with state agencies to design a Report Card on disability employment status
Establish goals to increase employment outcomes in all state agencies.
Get support for state-level Employment First plan oversight and implementation.
Education and Awareness
Develop and disseminate videos of employment success stories featuring employees with disabilities and employers.
Conduct a series of informational webinars about employment related topics for families, people with disabilities and employers.
Host an Employment First Summit to highlight best practices in policy and practice from across the country.
Work to Include is thankful for all the support from the Indiana Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities, our Advisory Committee, and all the local Team Leaders and Team Members. The next year will be great, because of their work. Check out the website for details.
Harkin Institute and the Future of Disability Policy
The 2020 Harkin Summit was held virtually on December 10 and explored the value of disability inclusion, particularly for businesses and employers. This annual event, which began in 2016, brings together individuals from various sectors and across the globe to identify and create strategies to increase the rate of employment of persons with disabilities in competitive, integrated employment.
In the event description for 2020, organizers noted, “The challenges and opportunities before us today are clear. We must immediately build back the jobs that were lost or put at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we look to the future, we must permanently fix the system so that disability inclusion moves from an aspirational goal to one that is an accepted and valued component of the business strategy.”
People from around the country and the world came together and discussed innovative approaches and how the pandemic is driving innovation and creating more employment opportunities. One of the themes of the Summit was how initiatives can and should be led by people with disabilities. In a report they note, “Equally important, the disability community has all the ingredients it needs to accelerate the realization of competitive, integrated employment: connections to the most influential investors, a proven track record of engaging in the policy process, an ability to engage corporate executives, and the ability to mobilize a campaign to achieve change.”
The Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement is located at Drake University and serves as a venue and catalyst for dynamic non-partisan research, learning, and outreach to promote understanding of the policy issues to which Senator Tom Harkin (retired), one of the architects of the ADA, devoted his career. See more at the website and connect to the Summit.
“I have never seen companies so excited to see something work that is not just driven by compliance. It really is the smart, proactive companies that are reassessing how they do business and who are the people they need to bring in so they can thrive.”
EARN Resources
The Employer Assistance and Resource Network (EARN) supports employers’ efforts to recruit, hire, retain and advance qualified individuals with disabilities. EARN provides free training on the latest disability inclusion topics. The website has an interactive training center with comprehensive, curated multimedia training on strategies, policies, and practices for advancing inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace. EARN website includes webinars and trainings on topics including: disability etiquette, interviewing job candidates with disabilities and reasonable accommodations. And employers can get HR Certification Institute (HRCI) and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) credits for attendance! If you have not checked out this resource, please do and share with others.
Moving on Up
Dayne Burger, 20, of Indianapolis.
Dayne started working with the Employment Division of Easterseals Crossroads, in May of 2018. He had just graduated from high school, never had a job, and did not know what he wanted to do now that school was done. What he did know was that he wanted to work, have a promising career, and enter his adult life successfully, like he had seen so many others do before him...
In working with Indiana State Vocation Rehabilitation and Easterseals Crossroads, Dayne narrowed his interests down, and he wanted to pursue working in a warehouse and driving a forklift. With backing from his Employment Consultants, Dayne attended an intensive class offered through Vincennes University’s Logistics and Warehouse Management Program, in which he gained certification in warehouse management and team leading. He is also now OSHA certified to drive a forklift.
Because of Dayne’s hard work, willingness to engage in new activities, and his supportive family, Dayne is now employed by Fastenal’s Indianapolis Distribution Hub as a picker, and he is training to be one of the few cherry picker forklift drivers on staff. Dayne’s curiosity and strong work ethic will take him far in both his career and personal life.
National Council on Disability Report on Reforming Social Security Disability
The National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent federal agency, released the agency’s latest report “Securing the Social Contract: Reforming Social Security Disability.” This report analyzes various proposals for SSI and SSDI reform with an emphasis on Medicaid policy and increasing opportunities for people with disabilities to work. In addition, the report identifies measures that could move people currently utilizing SSI/SSDI into the workforce and decrease the use of these benefits for sole income. Recommendations include modernizing the definition of disability and improving workplace access and accommodations for people with disabilities in a multitude of ways, including decoupling health care benefit and cash benefit eligibility; providing wraparound health benefits; improving the examination, planning, and gradual phase-in of a revised disability definition for benefit eligibility; ensuring management proficiency, early intervention, and improved federal collaboration efforts; identifying ways to boost work incentives; implementing evidence-based practices that address youth and people with mental health needs among vulnerable groups; and reviewing state supplemental systems.
#INCLUSIONWORKS
CHECK US OUT…
Please help get the word out! Go to our Facebook and LinkedIN pages and share them widely. We hope you enjoy the access to employment-related content and are sure others will, too. Thanks!
HAVE AN EMPLOYMENT SUCCESS STORY YOU ARE WANTING TO SHARE?EMAIL SRINNE60@GMAIL.COM. SHORT, SWEET AND A PICTURE WOULD BE WONDERFUL!
Thank you!
For more information please contact our Co-Directors,
Pat Rogan, Professor, IUPUI School of Education at progan@iupui.edu
or
Susan Rinne, MPA at srinne60@gmail.com
