vody/> RCM - Revitalizing Community Membership: Empowering Independence: State Helping Disabled Persons Get Community Jobs

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

State Helping Disabled Persons Get Community Jobs



A statewide effort is underway to increase employment opportunities for people supported by the Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD).

Locally, almost 20 DIDD-supported people living at Greene Valley Developmental Center and East Tennessee Community Homes are employed throughout the community. Many have worked in traditional jobs for several years.

Now, DIDD is working to extend the same opportunities to more of its clients.

EMPLOYMENT FIRST

The Employment First movement is a nationwide initiative to transition disabled persons working in sheltered workshops into integrated employment settings.

Tennessee has received national recognition for its work in Employment First, and is the only state to have two State Ambassadors working with the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program.

"Employment First is one of many of the department's efforts to help ensure that people with intellectual disabilities have the same opportunities to live and work in the community that we all have," said Cara Kumari, communications director for DIDD.

The Employment First initiative is an effort to comply with federal laws and regulations that require de-segregation and de-institutionalization of people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Since 2014, federal regulations related to Medicaid's Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) waivers dictate that individuals must be supported in settings that are not institutional in nature, Kumari said.

To read more on this story, click here: State Helping Disabled Persons Get Community Jobs

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