An Environmental Landscape Assessment of the Current Capacity of the Administration on Disabilities (AoD) Disability Networks to Improve the Employment Outcomes & Economic Advancement of Persons with Disabilities

Objectives of the Landscape Assessment

• Ascertain the strengths and opportunities of various AoD grantees related to impacting CIE outcomes for individuals with disabilities from AoD grantees, users of services provided by AoD grantees, and external partners.
• Explore challenges and barriers in policy, payment, and practice that impede the ability of AoD grantees to focus on and promote improvements in CIE outcomes for individuals with disabilities at the local, state, and federal levels of government.
• Identify innovative models of collaboration among differing AoD grantees and/or with outside stakeholders (e.g., employers, service providers, education systems, Medicaid, Vocational Rehabilitation (VR), workforce systems, advocacy organizations, and families) that are focused on improving CIE outcomes for individuals with disabilities. Models of notable interest include but are not limited to:
  • New approaches to job creation, development, and sustainability in the current era of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE).
  • Examples of aligning systems and streamlining services at the individual level to create solutions (e.g., braiding of resources, coordination of eligibility requirements and referrals, consolidation of case management activities across systems).
  • Strategies to expand focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion that prioritize people of color in accessing services and supports related to employment and economic advancement.
  • Tactics for expanding self-direction to empower individuals with disabilities to control their own destinies in garnering employment and optimal self-sufficiency.
• Disseminate and bring to scale evidence-based practices to improve CIE outcomes and address the underlying causes of chronic poverty among persons with disabilities and their families.
  • Identify needs of providers to inform capacity-building and comprehensive funding efforts.
• Identify gaps and common themes of interest to inform the design and structure of the Center’s TA strategy offerings outlined in the five-year strategic plan.
• Collect baseline data to inform the evaluation of the Center that will assess progress and outcomes achieved by AoD grantees that have received TA.

You can provide feedback to the Center on this document between now and July 15th by sending any comments to aodemploymentta@gmail.com.

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