Monday, October 18, 2010

Partner Spotlight: Alliance for Full Participation

The Alliance for Full Participation (AFP) is a collaboration of states and organizations that seek to ensure that people with developmental disabilities have the opportunity to be included, integrated, independent, and productive community members. AFP has a strong vision for employment equity in competitive jobs with competitive wages, raised expectations surrounding employment, and job satisfaction and retention among people with development disabilities. This commitment includes the "Real Jobs: It's Everyone's Business" Campaign, which seeks to double the employment rate of people with disabilities by 2015. A summit will be held in Washington, D.C. in November 2011 to mark the midpoint in the campaign and bring together the various stakeholders involved in the movement. Central to the work of AFP are state-level partners and state team members, including people with developmental disabilities, their employers, coworkers and families, business organizations, community members, service providers, government representatives, and advocates. Karen Flippo, the State Team Liaison for AFP, spoke with the NTAR Leadership Center about the "Real Jobs" campaign.


Listen to the podcast with Karen Flippo, State Teams Liaison, Alliance for Full Participation
Read a transcript of the podcast
Learn more about the November 2011 summit
Find out more about your state AFP team

Monday, October 4, 2010

Strategy Spotlight: Registered Apprenticeships

Registered Apprenticeships (RA) combine on the job training with classroom style education to provide a full skill set necessary to succeed at a particular career. The U.S. Department of Labor's (USDOL) RA program offers a training path to over 1,000 different careers in a wide variety of sectors - from the more traditional apprenticeship style fields such as a carpentry and electrical work to law enforcement and healthcare. Realizing the opportunity this kind of program could create for youth with disabilities, the USDOL's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) awarded cooperative agreements in September 2009 to The Workplace, Inc. of Bridgeport, Connecticut and the SkillSource Group, Inc. of Vienna, Virginia to provide RA programs for youth with disabilities. The NTAR Leadership Center sat down with Nestor Leon, Assistant Vice President of Programs at The WorkPlace, Inc. to discuss their efforts with this cooperative agreement and their experiences providing RA to youth with disabilities.

Listen to the podcast with Nestor Leon, Assistant Vice President of Programs, The WorkPlace, Inc.
Read a transcript of the podcast