Project 4: Dual Customer Employer Engagement and Service Delivery Strategies

We are strengthening VR's ability to serve both job seekers and employers. This project shifts the focus from supply-side preparation to demand-side engagement, addressing the critical role employers play in hiring and retaining individuals with intellectual and development disabilities (IDD). Through AI-informed training and tools, we support disability hiring efforts and help VR staff build stronger employer partnerships.

Dual Customer Employer Engagement icon

Activities

  • Developing a Toolkit for Employers: Develop resources to lower barriers for businesses, including an ADA Basics web series, an Employer Community of Practice (CoP), and disability awareness training.
  • Developing a Toolkit for VR Professionals: Provide VRCs with business sector skills: organizational marketing, "elevator speeches," and strategies for navigating corporate hierarchies (the C-Suite).
  • Developing a Toolkit for Service Providers: Offer service providers with instructional strategies and delivery models that tap into the "untapped labor pool" of individuals with IDD.
  • Capacity Building & Intensive TA: Disseminate the 2025 Quality Supported Employment Services handbook. Provide intensive virtual TA for Community Rehabilitation Programs (CRPs) through ACRE-approved courses focusing on job development for individuals with high support needs.