The webinars below offer information to assist providers partnering with businesses to encourage employment of people with I/DD. In some cases, the recordings below are applicable in more than 1 category.
1. Employment First for All: Helping People with Complex Needs Join the Workforce
Abby Cooper and Ellen Condon bring years of experience to share proven strategies for creating meaningful employment for people with complex needs. Their presentation challenges the idea that individuals with significant disabilities or behavioral health challenges are “unemployable,” offering practical techniques for partnering with businesses and designing individualized supports. They’ll focus on both long-term day habilitation participants and young adults transitioning from school to work, showing how anyone can achieve rewarding jobs and careers.
2. Using a Value-Added Approach to Customized Employment
Sara Murphy from TransCen will share how to use a value-driven approach to engage employers in Customized Employment. Learn how Lean principles can help identify business needs and match them with job seekers’ unique skills—moving beyond charity to real workplace value. Additional resources linked below include:
- 2.1 Potential Task List from Phillips, Spallas, and Angstadt, LLC
- 2.2 Examples of Waste in Business Handout
- 2.3 Cost Analysis Sheet
- 2.4 Galls Task List
3. Adapting Registered Apprenticeship for the IDD Population – A Panel Discussion
Kate McSweeny, President and CEO, ACCSES and J.W. Gibb, CIE and Apprenticeship SME will discuss how Federally Registered Apprenticeships provide a foundation to collaborate with business, schools, and community organizations to develop employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.
4. A2A Apprenticeship Program
This webinar explores how a partnership between University of Rochester, Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities, Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC), and the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY) created opportunities for training, pre-apprenticeship, and apprenticeship for individuals, including those with significant disabilities. Representatives from MACNY, MVCC and The Strong Center share the ways this partnership facilitated engagement, training, and employment and describe the program, its successes and challenges, how it has become a sustainable program and their plans for the future.
5. The Magic and Art of Job Development
Abby Cooper shares practical strategies for job developers to apply person-centered thinking, discovery, and storytelling in employment support. Learn how to engage employers, overcome resistance, and create meaningful opportunities for people with complex needs.