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The I Can Work! Project:
Enhancing Employability for Youth with Disabilities

by Sandra Smith

For many individuals with disabilities, disabling conditions are long-term. However, with early intervention and appropriate accommodations and services, there is a greater opportunity for individuals to lead full and independent lives. To test this assumption, in 1999 the Social Security Administration (SSA) awarded a three-year contract to MAXIMUS, to create the I Can Work! project. MAXIMUS is a company that provides a wide range of program management, information technology, and consulting services to government agencies throughout the United States. The project is designed to assist youth with disabilities who receive Supplement Security Income (SSI) in obtaining the information and services they need to successfully transition from school to work.

Project Overview

The I Can Work! project serves 15-16 year old youth who receive SSI and have had a Continuing Disability Review (CDR) performed by the State Disability Determination Services (DDS). The pilot, operated in Florida and Maryland, is designed to test whether some of these youth will choose and transition to employment and independence as a result of receiving vocational assessment, employability transition planning, and support services. Services begin when eligible individuals selected for the study are referred to the project from the DDS offices in each state. Project staff review the referral information and meet with the participant to determine the needed vocational assessments and employability services. Services needed to meet employment goals are coordinated by project staff from among available resources and service providers in the community. The education system in which the participant is enrolled is contacted in order to collect additional background information and to collaborate on transition services. MAXIMUS staff also educate families about SSA benefits and work incentives, including how to use these incentives to assist in the transition to independence.

At the conclusion of two years of operation, the I Can Work! project has successfully demonstrated that enhanced employability services can result in the employment and eventual independence of youth with disabilities.

Project Design and Outcomes

Key to the success of this project is an individualized, client-centered services approach that includes the participant, the participant’s family, and education and agency representatives in a coordinated team, focused on the goal of employment and the transition to independence. Project outcomes include the following:

• Completion of individualized Youth Transition Plans (YTP) that include information on assessments conducted; participant career interests; identification of strengths and challenges across each critical domain (educational, vocational, family, psychosocial, medical and life skills/community); and identified service strategies. Goals and objectives for each service recommendation are established and progress on the achievement of each objective is thoroughly documented.
• A team-based services approach that brings various perspectives to the transition planning process and leverages problem-solving and resource identification and use. This approach enables all players to communicate with each other based on a consistent plan of action and services that are client-based.
• Provision of comprehensive vocational assessments and pre-employment services such as travel training to help prepare participants to succeed in their employment experience. A range of progressive employment experiences are provided that may begin with job shadowing or unpaid experience, transitioning to paid employment.
• Linkages with community services and resources to obtain needed employability services and to employers in need of participant skills and abilities who can provide employment experiences. This includes connecting youth with community organizations and other service providers not previously serving these individuals, as well as forging links between such agencies as state departments of social services and juvenile justice and the school systems to ensure achievement of employment goals.
• A quality assurance system for cost-effective case coordination services, including the use of a Case Action Pay Point system that only pays for specific, measurable services and outcomes.
• Creative leveraging of existing networks including interagency councils, business groups, workforce development organizations, and social services forums by project staff to identify and secure services.
• Education, empowerment, and enabling of participants, their families, educators, and service providers in relation to the transition process, and support and case coordination in achieving desired transition outcomes. Case coordination addresses all family system and provider system issues affecting participant employability.
• Participants are able to identify vocational interests and goals and are following through on recommended transition objectives and service strategies, such as getting needed medical and therapeutic assistance, complying with behavioral objectives and demonstrating progress in achieving educational objectives.
• A dramatic increase in the numbers of participant families participating in Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings at schools and in increased understanding of the utility of the IEP to their child’s transition to employment and independence. In several cases, the YTP goals and service strategies have been integrated into the IEP. Project youth are supported in accessing all appropriate post-high school options including enrollment into postsecondary education and training.

This project has enabled staff to address employability issues earlier in the lives of the enrolled young people and has encouraged service systems to attend to their transition needs at an earlier age. It has helped identify and address service gaps and link existing resources in a cohesive manner to support achievement of independence. Thus far, successful placement into a variety of employment options (including paid and non-paid) has occurred for over 35% of enrolled individuals.

Sandra Smith is the Project Director for the MAXIMUS I Can Work! Project. The project’s administrative office is located in Alexandria, Virginia. Ms. Smith can be reached at 703/236-6671 or at sandrasmith@MAXIMUS.com.

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