Ready and Able: Addressing Labor Market Needs and Building Productive Careers for People with Disabilities through Collaborative Approaches

The report describes market-driven practices that increase hiring, retention, promotion and accommodation of people with disabilities through partnerships with employers.Approaches profiled in the research include: collaborations between major national employers and public sector agencies; models that focus on an industry or occupational sector; private and "alternative" staffing services that place people with disabilities; partnerships that expand opportunities for college students and graduates with disabilities; and local and regional hubs that connect people with disabilities and employers. The research also profiles two organizations where lead disability and employment partnerships act as catalysts

Core Competencies for Undergraduate Community-Engaged Researchers

Undergraduate community-engaged research (UCEnR) is a growing trend which VCU has proactively pursued by providing grants for UCEnR projects and assimilating UCEnR into interdisciplinary curricula. However, a definitive sense of core competencies for undergraduate community-engaged researchers has not yet been established. To that end, this literature review answers the question, What skills should UCEnR students have

The Emergence of new Successful Export Activities in Uruguay

El proyecto “El surgimiento de nuevas actividades exportadoras exitosas en América Latina” busca identificar los elementos claves en el proceso de descubrimiento de nuevas oportunidades de exportación en diferentes países de la región, con el objetivo de proponer políticas y reformas que permitan aumentar el ritmo de descubrimientos, en particular teniendo en cuenta la importancia relativa de diversas fallas de mercado. El enfoque general del estudio puede resumirse en que “los mercados se desempeñan bien al brindar señales de la rentabilidad de actividades que ya existen, pero su desempeño es pobre cuando se trata de actividades que podrían existir pero no existen. Aun si estas actividades no son nuevas en el sentido de que están presentes en economías más ricas, los productores se ven enfrentados a una considerable incertidumbre respecto a los costos y la productividad bajo las condiciones del mercado local. Introducirse en estos nuevos sectores típicamente requiere un inversor pionero, que indica a otros la rentabilidad de dichas actividades. Llamamos a este proceso de descubrir la estructura de costos interna de la economía auto-descubrimiento” (Hausmann y Rodrik, 2003). “En el proceso de auto-descubrimiento abundan las externalidades de información, debido a que la información de costos descubierta por un empresario no puede conservarse en forma privada. Si la empresa pionera resulta rentable, esto es fácilmente observable por otros. Los imitadores entran entonces en la actividad, la renta del productor establecido se disipa y se establece un nuevo sector. Si, por el contrario, el pionero quiebra, las pérdidas son soportadas en su totalidad por el empresario. En consecuencia, la actividad empresarial de esta naturaleza no es una actividad con alta recompensa: las pérdidas son privadas mientras las ganancias se socializan. Por tanto, los mercados no proporcionan suficiente actividad empresarial en actividades nuevas” (Hausmann, Rodríguez-Clare y Rodrik, 2006). El estudio realizado para Uruguay consistió en analizar cuatro actividades exportadoras nuevas para el país, en el contexto del marco teórico propuesto por el BID y siguiendo la metodología común establecida para todos los casos incluidos en el proyecto regional. Asimismo, en el marco de este estudio se construyó una base de datos armonizada de las exportaciones uruguayas de bienes a nivel de producto y empresa, que permite analizar la actividad exportadora a nivel de empresa, producto y mercado de destino en las últimas dos décadas. La disponibilidad de series de tiempo consistentes permitió superar las limitaciones de información que provocaban en las estadísticas los cambios introducidos en la clasificación de productos en cuatro oportunidades (1985, 1993, 1997, 2002). Este estudio busca una mejor comprensión de estos problemas en el caso de Uruguay, presentando, en primer término, una visión de conjunto del desempeño exportador de Uruguay y su política comercial, y un análisis de la actividad exportadora a nivel de firma. En segundo lugar se analizan en profundidad cuatro sectores: software, forestal, caviar y esturión, y vacunas de origen animal a partir de los cuales se extraen lecciones de políticas públicas.exportaciones, fallas de mercado, fallas de coordinación, proceso de auto-descubrimiento, software, sector forestal, vacunas de origen animal, caviar y esturión

Leveraging State Economic Development Resources to Create Job Opportunities for People with Disabilities

A 2009 research brief produced for the NTAR Leadership Center, a consortium led by the John H. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Founded in 2007 under a grant/contract with the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, the NTAR Leadership Center's mission is to build capacity and leadership at the federal, state, and local levels to enable change across workforce development and disability-specific systems that will increase employment and economic self-sufficiency for adults with disabilities. This brief examines existing state, regional, and local economic development resource tools and discusses ways in which states and localities can leverage traditional loan and financing programs that enhance job creation, provide access to local employment opportunities, or help support employment for residents, including those with disabilities

Surgimiento de actividades de exportación exitosas en Uruguay: cuatro casos específicos

En este trabajo se presenta el análisis de cuatro casos específicos de surgimiento de cuatro actividades de exportación exitosas de Uruguay: software de computación, productos madereros, caviar y carne de esturión, y vacunas para animales. En cada uno de esos casos específicos se trata cómo empresas, asociaciones y varios gobiernos a varios niveles han manejado crisis de mercado y facilitado el suministro de los bienes públicos necesarios para cada actividad. El análisis de estos casos específicos presenta además una descripción de las características de los actores principales en cada ramo de actividad así como las externalidades positivas que brindan a los emuladores, especialmente la difusión de conocimientos sobre exportación. También se presenta en cada área un caso opuesto de actividad menos exitosa (electrónica, vino, carne de rana y biotecnología, respectivamente) así como una sección sobre implicaciones de políticas.Agriculture, Exports, Manufacturing, Services, Uruguay

Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies Helping People With Psychiatric Disabilities Get Employed: How Far Have We Come? How Far Do We Have to Go?: Case Studies of Promising Practices in Vocational Rehabilitation

The final set of eight promising practices out of the 58 nominated practices are summarized here and then described inmore detail in the appendix. Each descriptive write up can be used independently and provides sufficient detail for review. A note from the VR RRTC Team: These are descriptions of practices in one snapshot of time. We acknowledge that by thetime we are able to produce asummary report, practices may have evolved or modified, and new practices may have emerged. For more specific details or up to date descriptions we advise going to the source, the state VR agencies, directly. We did our best to honor the ongoing work in thestate VR agencies and among their partners. The shortcomings of this report are the responsibility of the authors who welcome corrections, amendments, updates, and review. We humbly thank the many individuals that contributed to this effort by nominating practices, reviewing materials, participating in interviews, reviewing summary reports, and serving on expert panels. We applaud the ongoing work to innovate and advance employment outcomes of people with psychiatric disabilities and mental illnesses. The abstracts are in alphabetical order by state VR agency and thus order does not reflect any particular endorsement

A Teaching Case on Information Systems Development Outsourcing: Lessons from a Failure

Students and academics rarely receive an opportunity to investigate and learn from failed projects even though many organizations restrict access to information about failed projects in order to minimize reputational damage (Chua & Lam, 2005). However, failure cases can provide unique insights that one often ignores or cannot explore in successful projects (Lyytinen & Robey, 1999). To facilitate this learning, we present a teaching case based on an outsourced information systems development project that commenced in 2010 and was terminated in 2013. We observe the project’s failure from the viewpoint of the vendor to illustrate how misspecified requirements and insufficient understanding of the client organization’s specific requirements can lead to project failures. We derived the case description and analyses by conducting seven interviews with project team members and by analyzing 14 business requirement specification documents

Systems Change in Employment Services for Persons With Serious and Persistent Mental Illness in Maine: Status Report 2006-2009

Employment for people with serious and persistent mental illness (SPMI) is a complex issue impacted by numerous factors. Research studies have documented how integral employment is to recovery; nonetheless, employment rates among this population remain low. Additional studies have documented the barriers to achieving successful employment outcomes, yet resolving these barriers remains a compelling challenge. Compounding this, the national economic recession has brought unemployment rates to extremely high levels for everyone. Maine is faring a bit better than the national average but Maine’s unemployment rate has increased each of the last three years to its current 8.1 % level. Coupled with this, the state’s budget crisis has resulted in cutbacks in services to vulnerable citizens. It is in this context that Maine’s Office of Adult Mental Health Services is working to address the obstacles to employment for persons with SPMI served through the public mental health system. Late in 2009, OAMHS asked the Muskie School of Public Service to review qualitative and quantitative data and other sources to determine the array of employment services needed for persons with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI), the resources currently available and potential solutions to obstacles. This report documents the progress OAMHS has made between 2006- 2009 and offers possible next steps

How to Work With Public Opinion Research: A Guide for Human Rights and Civil Liberties Advocates and Their Funders

Presents arguments and tools for integrating public opinion research into communications work. Includes case studies, research methods, consultant information, and a guide to help grantmakers evaluate grant proposals to conduct public opinion research

Analysis of spacing for spotted gum plantations for maximising merchantable logs' volume in South East Queensland, Australia

Spotted gum (Corymbia citriodora subspecies Variegata) has the potential to be the major hardwood species for large-scale plantations in South East Queensland, Australia, but production research is limited due to the lack of age of research plots. Optimal spacing is a major subject of concern. Based on time series data from a spotted gum experiment site, growth performance is analysed for five spacing levels: ─11.3 m x 11.3 m (78 stems per hectare), 7.4 m x 7.4 m (182 sph), 5.4 m x 5.4 m (343 sph), 3.6 m x 3.6 m (771 sph) and 2.9 m x 2.9 m (1189 sph). The major objective was assumed to be to maximise total merchantable log volume. A growth model was produced, and the mean diameter at breast height (dbh) and total merchantable log volume for each spacing levels at a range of harvesting ages was estimated. From the analysis, the spacing level of 5.4 m x 5.4 m was found to be optimal for maximising merchantable log volume to 10 cm small-end diameter. Further analysis of mean dbh, height and volume of the largest 200 and 250 trees from this spacing level indicates that merchantable log volume could be maximised by retaining the 250 largest trees per hectare. The total financial revenue from the best spacing level in 25 and 30 years are predicted to be $13,637 and$17,779 per hectare, respectively. If full rotation data could be obtained, more reliable models could be produced, and a more accurate financial estimate could be made