WorkWORLD - Website of the Week →

WorkWORLD is a Decision Support Tool for people with disabilities and families who are receiving public benefits. It represents innovative software for personal computers designed to help people with disabilities, advocates, benefit counselors, and others explore and understand how to best use the work incentives associated with the various Federal and State disability and poverty benefit programs.

WorkWORLD automates the computation of benefits, and takes into account the complex interaction of income, benefit programs, and work incentives. Integrated, synchronized, closed-captioned multi-media demonstrations of WorkWORLD are now available on the website. Tutorial modules explain WorkWORLD’s features and show many aspects of its operation, while presentation modules discuss the software’s use in the broader context of benefits planning and service delivery for individuals.

WorkWORLD is currently free to residents of Virginia. State agencies, community-based organizations, and individuals can help build a state funding pool to make WorkWORLD free to residents of their state by making pledges to support WorkWORLD. Read more at the WorkWORLD website. WorkWORLD is also available for purchase for those outside of Virginia.

• $50 - Complete WorkWORLD software (includes the Help/Information System)
• $25 - Stand-alone WorkWORLD Help/Information System software only
• Each paid order includes a free one-year automatic subscription to all available software updates.

Students at Greatest Risk for Poor Post-School Employment Outcomes: What Can Schools Do? - Publication of the Week →

Center on Transition Employment for Youth with Disabilities Issue Brief

Decades of research have consistently shown that students with disabilities as a group fare poorly after school exit, particularly in employment. While the transition planning mandates of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (IDEA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA) have improved the postschool prospects for many students with disabilities, far too many transition from school not to employment or other productive activities, but to waiting lists for adult services, inactivity, and for some, illegal or self-destructive behaviors.

Career Exploration in Action - Publication of the Week →

This brief is part of a series of publications called Innovative Strategies Practice Briefs. Each brief highlights strategies for implementing a specific practice gleaned from Innovative Strategies from the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth)-identified promising and exemplary programs.

This latest brief describes strategies and resources that youth programs and school systems use to engage all youth in exploring various career options. All youth need career exploration opportunities to identify how their interests and skills relate to various careers, learn what education and training is needed to pursue careers of interest, and make informed decisions about their future. Some types of career exploration activities include career-related guest speakers, workplace visits and tours, job shadowing, career fairs and career days, and career-focused mentoring.

Ten Points for Veterans to Consider When Returning to Work with a Disability - Publication of the Week →

This fact sheet highlights some of the things Veterans should keep in mind as they re-enter the workforce. It discusses if and when to tell an employer about your disability, requesting workplace accommodations and how work may affect disability payments.

Ten Points for Veterans to Consider… was created by Northeast ADA Center, Employment & Disability Institute, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

MyEmploymentOptions.com - Website of the Week →

Employment Options is a Certified Social Security Administration (SSA) Employment Network for the Ticket To Work program. Its primary goal is to help beneficiaries on disability insurance (SSDI) and supplemental insurance (SSI) find suitable jobs for either part-time or full-time positions. It also helps employers nationwide locate quality, pre-screened applicants to fill work at home jobs. Employers can receive up to a $2400 Tax Credit per employee in the Ticket To Work program.

All services are free to qualified beneficiaries and all employers. The team can help with the Ticket To Work process, offer resources to help in interviewing and finding a job. Get started now and find out if you qualify!

Helping Youth With Disabilities Develop Soft Skills for Job Success - Publication of the Week →

created by the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability

Parents and family members can help young people prepared for job success by working with them and encouraging them to develop soft skills. “Soft skills” are common sense skills that are important in all aspects of life and have been identified by employers as particularly important for success at work. By improving these skills, all youth, including youth with disabilities, can enhance their social life, do better in postsecondary education pursuits, and be more successful at finding and maintaining employment. This Info Brief describes several strategies that families can use to help youth develop soft skills.

Think Beyond the Label - Website of the Week →

Think Beyond the Label^SM is committed to making the business case for employing people with disabilities. It represents a partnership of health and human service and employment agencies with federal grants, coming together to build a uniform national infrastructure and approach that connects businesses to qualified candidates with disabilities. The goal is to raise awareness that hiring people with disabilities makes good business sense. Employees with disabilities have unique, competitively relevant knowledge and perspectives about work processes, bringing different perspectives to meeting work requirements and goals successfully. Hiring someone who “thinks outside the box” might be thinking too small when there’s an opportunity to hire someone who lives outside the box.

Opening Doors for Everyone: Providing Outstanding Customer Service at One-Stop Career Centers - Website of the Week →

This new Workforce3 One Community of Practice includes information on a series of webinars that will be running during the months of April and May (while the registration is full, this series is being recorded and will be archived on this site). Several of the targeted programs within the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration including disability, older workers, Indian and Native American, and Rural and Migrant Seasonal Workers came together over a year ago to put together a training and technical assistance initiative for One-Stop Career Center front-line staff. This initiative has several components including a compilation of research, a series of webinars, a toolkit and a curriculum using an integrated approach.

Webinar Series

The three-part webinar series is designed to help frontline staff open the doors of One-Stop Career Centers for customers from all walks of life and covers the following topics:

• Enhancing the customer experience at One-Stop Career Centers.
• Employing strengths-based approaches to customer service.
• Making customers partners in their own success.

Working While Disabled: How We Can Help (PDF) - Publication of the Week →

This booklet, published by the Social Security Administration, was created to help individuals with disabilities understand the basics of Social Security’s work incentives and Ticket to Work programs. It includes breif overviews of topics such as:

• Extended period of eligibility
• Expedited reinstatement
• Continuation of Medicare

SSA also offers Working While Disabled: How We Can Help in HTML, spanish, and in an audio format.

AccessibleEmployment.org - Website of the Week →

AccessibleEmployment.org is a national job board dedicated to including employees with disabilities in today’s workforce. Twenty-first century employers will require a diverse pool of skilled candidates to accomplish their goals. This website is dedicated to closing the gap between employers searching for qualified workers and candidates with disabilities searching for employment.

AccessibleEmployment.org was started by the New Jersey Business Leadership Network (NJ BLN), which in turn was established with generous support from the Henry H. Kessler Foundation. AccessibleEmployment.org allows employers to include qualified disabled candidates in their employee recruitment efforts.