The Council believes people with developmental disabilities deserve the opportunity to contribute their productivity in their communities. The Council’s initiatives include programs which promote people with developmental disabilities acquiring and maintaining competitive integrated individualized employment consistent with their abilities and interests.
“In my office, we’re practicing what we preach.” – Governor Edwards. Governor John Bel Edwards and Council Chair April Dunn encourage employers to diversify the workplace by hiring people with disabilities. Click here to watch.
Current Initiatives
Employment Advocacy Initiatives
The Council supports changes in public policy and practice which result in an increase in the number people with developmental disabilities in competitive, integrated, individualized employment. Two major items the Council is currently advocating are the implementation of policy and practice consistent with Employment First and for competency-based certification of employment support professionals with recognized skills sets demonstrated to be effective in supporting people with disabilities getting and maintaining employment.
Customized employment training and competency-based certification mentoring
The Certification program provides intensive three-day training and five-month mentoring to provide skills consistent with the “Essential Elements of Customized Employment for Universal Application” as published by the Workforce Innovation Technical Assistance Center (WINTAC) June 2017. Candidates must demonstrate competency on skills to a Mentor before being certified in each of the three areas: Discovery, Job Development, and Systematic Instruction.
CUSTOMIZED EMPLOYMENT TRAINING
These one-day trainings are provided as a follow-up to the Council’s Employment Conference. The trainings give providers with little experience in Customized Employment basic information on what is involved in Customized Employment.