2016 TASH Conference

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) creates opportunities for people with disabilities to benefit from the services of the workforce system, including people on waiting lists and people concurrently receiving school, developmental disabilities or vocational rehabilitation services. LEAD Center staff will discuss activities that promote partnerships and programmatic access to American Job Centers (AJCs) for people with disabilities and others with barriers to employment, as required by WIOA. This includes projects that introduce Guided Group Discovery (GGD) and Self-Guided Discovery (SGD) into the workforce system, as part of Customized Employment, conducted in partnership with job-seekers and AJC partners from vocational rehabilitation, developmental disabilities, behavioral health, independent living, etc. GGD provides a small group with peer-to-peer support as they identify their interests, skills and contributions, and conditions for employment, resulting in an individual Ÿ??blueprintŸ? to guide them as they begin or continue their search for employment. SGD enables a job-seeker and their support network to identify their ideal conditions for employment and develop a career plan, with help from a facilitator/coach at key points in the process. Participants will: (1) Learn about the opportunities created by WIOA for people with disabilities. (2) Explore Guided Group Discovery and Self-Guided Discovery approaches, and ways in which they can open doors to partnerships with AJCs and other key partners. (3) Identify the people who would most benefit from these approaches and strategies. (4) Identify the ways in which both approaches enable job seekers to build and use expanding networks of people to assist in their job search. (5) Explore ways through which agencies can best partner with the workforce system to jointly support job-seekers with disabilities to achieve competitive integrated employment.