RRTC on Employment Among People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities 2024 - Virginia Commonwealth University will partner with the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Vanderbilt University, and University of Kansas over five years to conduct research on Employment Among People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). The goal is to work collaboratively with people with IDD and other stakeholders to study best practices, and then use this information to implement intervention-based research that will improve the lives and employment outcomes of people with IDD. To meet this goal, we have developed objectives that focus on enhancing support at each stage of the employment process. These objectives include: (a). expanding and refining a peer-parent mentorship program that supports unemployed individuals with IDD throughout the employment process, (b). identifying characteristics of competitive integrated employment (CIE) that lead to positive quality-of-life changes in employed persons with IDD, (c). expanding upon a career-focused technology preparation program for underserved youth with IDD, (d). developing a curriculum and technical assistance model to improve support provided to people with IDD in technical and community colleges, and (e). creating a fidelity of implementation scale to increase the integrity of employment support services provided to individuals with IDD across the country. These activities will result in advanced research, training and technical assistance for people with IDD, vocational rehabilitation professionals, family members, and other stakeholders interested in the employment outcomes of people with IDD. The knowledge translation activities in this project will establish a National Resource Center on Employment Among People with IDD, with important products (e.g., webcasts, articles, intervention manuals, microlearning series, infographics, fact sheets, etc.) that will improve existing practices.
