In October 2016, the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) launched the Empowering through Employment Initiative to assist the growing number of individuals who expressed an interest in community-based employment. According to National Core Indicators, 51% of individuals receiving home and community-based services express an interest to work in the community; however, fewer than 25% had a goal in their annual plan to support this interest and only 3% of individuals on a monthly basis had services authorized to assist with their employment pathway.
Please note: Effective State Fiscal Year 2024 the unit of evaluation is at the county level instead of Targeted Case Management agency. Additionally, an additional threshold of “pink” has been added to reflect those counties which have at least one individual with an employment authorization; but, less than the foundation threshold benchmark of 13%. Counties indicated in “white” have no individuals with an authorization to support employment pathways.
FY 24 Q1 (July - Sept) Update
Launched in October 2016, the Empowering Through Employment initiative goal was to increase the number of individuals who had the opportunity to pursue their career pathway. This number has increased to 1,148 individuals within this quarter, which is a net increase of 213% since the initiative launched.
TCM Ribbon Status by County
Counties are identified by achieving target thresholds based on the percentage of individuals with employment service authorizations. Currently, 28 counties have coordination of employment supports falling within one of the three levels. Another 54 counties have coordination falling within 1 – 12.99% (identified as pink).
Support coordinators are the key to helping individuals and families with being informed of employment services and career pathways.
This quarter, 197 support coordinators had coordination of waiver funded employment services meeting one of the benchmark levels.
The Empowering Through Employment powerpoint initiative can be found at Empowering Through Employment: Taking Charge of Change.