Employment for people with intellectual disabilities and KentuckyWorks were recently featured in an article by Valarie Honeycutt Spears in the Lexington Herald-Leader. The article highlights the significant contributions of people with disabilities, like Megan McCormick, who works as a para-educator at Lexington’s Millcreek Elementary. Continue reading
HDI has recently launched a new website and learning modules for teachers, people with disabilities, employers, families, and employment professionals at kentuckyworks.org. The purpose of this website is to help navigate the transition process and find the most valuable transition resources in Kentucky and nationwide to make sure youth with disabilities can get jobs and higher education after they finish school. Continue reading
A free screening of the Bottom Dollars film, an original documentary by Rooted in Rights about the work exploitation of nearly 250,000 people with disabilities, will be held on October 25 from 6-8pm in the Lyric Theater Community Room in Lexington. This free public event is being presented by the University of Kentucky Human Development Institute, the Commonwealth Council on Developmental Disabilities, and Kentucky Protection & Advocacy (P&A).
Following the screening, there will be a panel presentation featuring HDI’s employment expert, Milton Tyree, as well as the Bottom Dollars filmmaker who will be flying in from Washington State. Continue reading
by Chithra Adams, Harold Kleinert, Kathy Sheppard-Jones, Amanda Corbin & Malachy Bishop
Young adults with disabilities face multiple challenges in obtaining successful post-school employment outcomes. This situation has remained relatively unchanged despite nearly 25 years of federal attention to the issue, including mandated transition services and a series of additional significant legislative responses. Recent research by Carter, Austin, and Trainor (2012) highlighted the severity of the situation, showing that “just 26% of recent graduates with severe disabilities were working for pay in their community up to 2 years after leaving high school” and 43% of those who were employed “held jobs in which most other workers had disabilities” (Carter et al., 2016, p. 398).
KentuckyWorks is a five-year systems change grant project designed to directly impact post-school outcomes for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Kentucky. KentuckyWorks is a collaborative, multi-partner project that aims to impact youth outcomes within each of the state’s 174 school districts, and the target population is defined as all KY transition-age students with the most significant disabilities. The goal is to increase positive post-school outcomes (integrated employment, participation in post-secondary education, or both) for students with the most significant disabilities in the state by 20 percentage points over the five years of this grant.
Read the Research Brief.
Conference Speaker Christopher Coleman, “Unconfined” Motivational Speaker, Author and Life Coach. Photo by Andy Meredith.
HDI’s Barry Whaley worked alongside colleagues from the Southeast ADA Center of Friday, September 23 to host a full day conference: “The Moneywise: Financial Opportunities for People with Disabilities” at The Frazer Center in Atlanta. About 60 people attended the conference to learn about pursuing their financial and career aspirations; accessing financial, small business, educational, medical, and housing opportunities; and maximizing government benefits and establishing ABLE accounts. Continue reading