Perspectives of Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors on the Factors Related to Employment Outcomes of Racial and Ethnic Minorities with Disabilities

The current study was conducted to identify effective strategies to promote employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities from diverse cultural backgrounds within the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) system. Twenty one “excellent or very good” VR counselors, who were nominated by their supervisors, participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews. Participants were 15 females and 6 males, with an average of 17 years of experience in the VR system. The participants identified five themes: (1) an empowerment approach to case management; (2) the importance of developing successful counseling relationships; (3) supports provided to help consumers adjust to or cope with their disability; (4) supports provided to assist individuals with disabilities to develop or refine skills to obtain and maintain employment; and (5) supports provided to assist employers in understanding the benefits of employing individuals with disabilities in general, and accommodating the needs of specific individuals with disabilities. Effective counselors must be flexible, provide additional supports to their clients in specific circumstances and/or challenge them when needed, and more importantly, help clients find ways to overcome and be productive on the job with the necessary accommodations and/or assistive technology

Jobs for Youth Program: An Intervention to Improve Transition Outcomes of Former Dropout Minority Youth

This study describes an intervention developed to implement several best transition practices with a high risk/high need population. 116 students with disabilities from a charter school for dropouts participated. All students were interviewed at different points in time to track their progress as they completed the program. Records of participant’s activities and outcomes were collected. Results suggest a positive impact on students’ graduation rate (95%), enrollment in vocational rehabilitation (100%), proportion of students obtaining certificates for employment (56%), and paid internship (37%). Overall, 35% of the vocational rehabilitation cases were closed successfully with students meeting the 90-day employment requirement after graduation. Result inform future work on the implementation of interventions designed to help low-income minority youth with disabilities

Jobs for Youth Program: An Intervention to Improve Transition Outcomes of Former Dropout Minority Youth

This study describes an intervention developed to implement several best transition practices with a high risk/high need population. 116 students with disabilities from a charter school for dropouts participated. All students were interviewed at different points in time to track their progress as they completed the program. Records of participant’s activities and outcomes were collected. Results suggest a positive impact on students’ graduation rate (95%), enrollment in vocational rehabilitation (100%), proportion of students obtaining certificates for employment (56%), and paid internship (37%). Overall, 35% of the vocational rehabilitation cases were closed successfully with students meeting the 90-day employment requirement after graduation. Result inform future work on the implementation of interventions designed to help low-income minority youth with disabilities