From a historical perspective, Developmental Disability (DD) Councils and provider organizations have often operated on parallel tracks that rarely intersected. State Councils were established as early as 1970, when states were required to establish State Planning and Advisory Councils and were further defined in the Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000, at which time councils became independent in their work and committed to community-based living. Provider organizations, many of which were founded by parents seeking a safe and supportive environment for their adult family members with disabilities, often operated in facility-based settings which focused on providing supportive social and pre-vocational services to people with disabilities. These historical and philosophical differences created an “us” versus “them” environment in many states, whereby many councils did not see any alignment with providers who historically operated in facility-based settings and paid sub-minimum wages to workers with disabilities. With the movement towards Employment First, and the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and federal Home and Community Based Settings (HCBS) regulation, the potential for Councils to collaborate with providers in a variety of ways by finding alignment in the mutual goal of improving community access and inclusion and identifying the intersections in how they could support systems-change efforts has become apparent.
2024 Year in Review – Leading Webinars and Technical Assistance Resources
As the calendar year draws to a close, the Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center (DETAC) highlights our most popular resources from 2024. The blog linked below features lists of the most popular webinars and technical assistance (TA) resources our stakeholders