Editor’s note: This is the first in a four-part series that is a collaboration produced by members of the Vermont Care Partners for National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, featuring stories by and about Vermonters with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as the work of Vermont’s Developmental Services network. This part is written by Mike Reilly, Development Coordinator at Champlain Community Services, a member agency in Vermont Care Partners.
At a time when many businesses struggle to find employees to maintain adequate staffing, job seekers with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) represent a still underutilized resource. Fortunately for Vermont, the state is an internationally recognized leader in helping connect job seekers with IDD to employment in the competitive economy. And the State’s Developmental Services network continues to build on that leadership role, strengthening individuals, businesses, and communities by diversifying the workforce.
Not content to rest on their laurels, professionals in Vermont’s Supported Employment Program are working to create more and better opportunities – higher end jobs in a wider array of industries – for people with IDD. That includes starting younger, reaching out to students with IDD to offer post-secondary education, career development, and work experiences.
In 2017, Vermont earned a prestigious Zero Project Award for Innovative Policy in employment. A team that included Dr. Bryan Dague, Ed.D., research assistant professor at the University of Vermont’s Center on Disability & Community Inclusion, Elizabeth Sightler, executive director at Champlain Community Services in Colchester, and Lisa Culbertson, director of employment services at Upper Valley Services of Bradford, Randolph and Moretown, travelled to Vienna, Austria to accept the award on behalf of the state.
“The Zero Project award was such an honor for the State of Vermont,” Culbertson said. “It recognized collective hard work in serving people with developmental disabilities in their quest to get people working.”
That work is administered by the state’s Department of Disabilities, Aging, and Independent Living through its Developmental Disabilities Services and Vocational Rehabilitation Divisions. In partnership with its provider agencies, Vermont’s supported employment initiative has helped Vermonters with disabilities work in the competitive job market since the early 1980s.
Jennie Masterson, supported employment services coordinator at DAIL, said that Vermont was the first state in the nation to close so-called “sheltered workshops” that offered workers with disabilities sub-minimum wage work in segregated settings. She also said that Vermont’s employment rate for people receiving developmental disability services (48%) compares favorably to the national average of 20%. “We get lots of visitors from around the country and around the world seeking technical assistance,” Masterson said.
Dague said the state was better positioned than some others for rapid change and innovation. “Vermont was small, and nimble,” he said, “and we had strong leadership.” Through the CDCI, Dague has coordinated the Vermont Sheltered Workshop Conversion Institute in alternating years for more than a decade to assist supported employment professionals from around the country in converting their workshops to community-based employment models.
Masterson emphasized Vermont keeps aiming to enhance its own model. “One of our best kept secrets is how we prioritize employment within developmental services,” she said. “We encourage people to convert community support hours to employment supports, and lots of states don’t do that.” Vermont employment professionals want to take that next step.
Michelle Paya, director of employment for the Way2Work initiative at CCS, expressed disappointment that too often entry-level jobs are viewed as a ceiling for people with disabilities. “The economy needs neurodiversity at all levels,” she said. Paya talked about a young Way2Work participant who followed the rigorous path to achieve certification as a child care provider and now works at an accredited child care center.
“Part of our role is to educate everyone on what’s possible,” Paya said. “We need to reach out to people with disabilities early in life and encourage them to push the limits and dream big dreams for their futures. And we need to teach the community to hear them.”
At CCS, that process begins with high school students in the Bridging program, coordinated in partnership with five Chittenden County high schools. “Bridging introduces high school students with intellectual disabilities and autism to the world – people, organizations, and opportunities in the community – while they’re still in school,” said Emily Anderson, Bridging coordinator. A key component is career exploration and pre-vocational skills development. Part of that is access, said Dean Haller, a volunteer mentor with over 40 years’ experience in business and human resources. Students practice job applications and interviews and meet local professionals working in their “dream jobs.”
“Bridging emphasis on community connections offers opportunities for integration that might not happen otherwise,” Anderson said. “And those connections are the path to true inclusion.”
With over 30 years’ experience in the field, Dague has played an integral role, as both a researcher and practitioner, in developing Vermont’s supported employment infrastructure. He also directs Think College Vermont at UVM, which offers an inclusive, well-rounded college experience to students with disabilities, including IDD, looking for a career path.
Dague said that while job seekers with IDD are still most likely to find work in the service sector, employers in other industries are beginning to recognize an opportunity. “We used to have to work hard to convince employers,” he said, “but workers with disabilities are more visible in more places now.” He said the success of people with IDD in the workplace has “demystified” the process for employers, who often reap benefits beyond gaining a good employee. Dague cited studies that show an inclusive workplace can raise morale for the entire staff and others that show customers are more likely to have a positive view of – and do business with – a company that employs workers with disabilities.
“Diversity is the flavor of success,” said Culbertson. “The benefit to having a diversified workforce are promoting teamwork, recognizing and building on people’s strength, and building relationships that spill into outside opportunities to enrich each other’s lives. Economically, people feel more included by contributing to the economic wellness of their communities.”
For the next generation of Vermonters with IDD, the early returns seem to show the link between access to post-secondary education experiences and employment. Masterson looked at the numbers for Vermonters participating in Think College Vermont as well as SUCCEED, a post-secondary education program of Howard Center in Burlington for students with intellectual disabilities or autism, College Steps and Project SEARCH. College Steps offers Individualized College Plan for students with IDD on the Johnson and Lyndon campuses of Northern Vermont University and Castleton University, and Project SEARCH provides an immersive, one-year workplace-based high school to work transition experience at UVM Medical Center, Rutland Regional Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Masterson said 36 of 42 combined 2019 graduates – an impressive 86% employment rate – had jobs at graduation. Of those not graduated but still enrolled, 44% were already employed.
“There are so many reasons for people with disabilities to be working,” Sightler said. “For workers, it’s more than a paycheck. Studies consistently show employment relates to better physical and mental health and a sense of connection to community.” She also cited productivity – noting workers with IDD become taxpayers whose employment results in Medicaid support savings.
At a more basic level, it’s a human rights issue. A recent issue of Scientific American discussed the concept of neurodiversity in this way; “Neurological variations are a vital part of humanity, as much as variations in size, shape, skin color and personality.”
“I derive so much value from working, including friendships and strong working relationships,” Sightler said. “Why would anyone think that would be different for people with disabilities? So there’s a social justice component. No one should be excluded.”
For more information about Northeast Kingdom Human Services visit our website at nkhs.org or call 24/7 at (802) 334-6744. Or visit our website at nkhs.org. This series is a collaboration produced by members of the Vermont Care Partners statewide network of sixteen non-profit, community-based agencies providing mental health, substance use and intellectual and developmental disability support. To find an agency near you visit https://vermontcarepartners.org/agencies/
