Department of Labor: National Center for Leadership and Economic Independence Grant for Adults with Disabilities

1. Description and Purpose

ODEP will award one cooperative agreement to establish a national
technical assistance and research center for increasing employment and
economic independence for adults with disabilities. The overall purpose
of this effort is to build leadership and partnership across workforce
development, economic development, and relevant partner agencies and
systems, including generic and disability-specific agencies and
systems, so that they work together strategically and effectively to
increase employment outcomes and economic self-sufficiency for adults
with disabilities. The Center will: Conduct research to identify,
validate, document, and otherwise promote effective practices and
policies in targeted goal areas; develop and disseminate information;
provide technical assistance; encourage collaboration and partnership
across State and local generic and disability-specific systems and
programs, both public and private; and work with States and localities
on multiple strategies in targeted goal areas for improving employment
outcomes and economic self-sufficiency for adults with disabilities.
Activities of the Center must be based on the assumptions that: people
with disabilities have the ability to make and implement decisions
(with support as appropriate) about their own work life, and that they
have the ability to mobilize and develop resources (with support as
necessary) to move from poverty and dependency to independence and
productivity through employment. They must also be based on the
assumption that there is a need for multiple generic and disability-
specific systems and services to effectively partner across traditional
boundaries. In accomplishing these goals, the Center will provide
transformational leadership for translating innovation and emerging
successful solutions from isolated demonstrations to systemic
practices, and will act as a voice for elevating the discussion about
employment and disability nationally.
The Center’s research-related activities will improve systems
capacity to provide leadership for increasing employment and economic
self-sufficiency at the State and local level in targeted goal areas,
and must include the development of policy-related recommendations for
consideration across agencies and systems. It must include, but is not
limited to, the following activities:
Implementing research, demonstration activities, and
otherwise developing evidence (either through qualitative and
quantitative methods, as appropriate) in targeted goal areas for
effective models and approaches to increasing employment and economic
self-sufficiency for adults with disabilities;
Promoting and documenting the impact of actions of key
leadership personnel at the State and local levels across public and
private systems and agencies utilizing employment approaches in
targeted goal areas in select states;
Conducting an analysis of the interaction between and
among various strategies and approaches in targeted goal areas as they
exist in public policy, both nationally and in select states; and
Developing evidence across public and private systems and
agencies of effective leadership strategies in targeted goal areas.

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The Center’s technical assistance and dissemination activities must
include, but are not limited to, the following:
Developing evidence-based information and materials
(including multi-media materials, curricula, and other relevant
accessible products) in targeted goal areas for use in increasing
leadership capacity for advancing employment and economic self-
sufficiency for adults with disabilities;
Preparing and disseminating appropriate reports and
documents related to targeted goal areas in publications including, but
not limited to, peer-reviewed journals;
Providing intensive technical assistance, training, and
information in targeted goal areas to ODEP’s grantees including
documenting the impact of such actions;
Providing information to educate relevant stakeholders,
including State and local policymakers, systems personnel, key
leadership personnel, educators, and other relevant individuals and
groups about changes in policy and practice needed in order to increase
employment and economic self-sufficiency for adults with disabilities,
and the evidence supporting action in targeted goal areas under this
solicitation;
Providing technical assistance, training, and information
to increase understanding and utilization by relevant workforce systems
and agencies of strategies developed in targeted goal areas;
Serving as a repository and dissemination center for
materials and effective practices developed by current and former ODEP
grantees; and
Creating and maintaining a user-friendly Web site with
relevant information and documents in a form that meets a government or
industry-recognized standard for accessibility.
The Center’s collaboration and partnership activities must include,
but are not limited to:
Developing evidence on strategies for, and results of,
effective interagency partnership and collaboration between and among
Federal, State, and local systems and agencies, both generic and
disability-specific, that effectively leverage and maximize available
resources in ways that provide choice, control and self-direction to
individual job seekers; and
Developing, maintaining, and documenting relationships
that result in partnerships and collaborations to foster employment and
economic self-sufficiency for adults with disabilities. Partners may
include but are not limited to the following entities:
(1) State departments and agencies across generic and disability-
specific systems such as departments of Labor, Economic Development,
Vocational Rehabilitation, Veterans Affairs, Mental Health, Medicaid,
Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities, Education, and Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); and Governors’ Committees on
Employment of People with Disabilities and Developmental Disability
Councils;
(2) Local Work Investment Act (WIA) service providers, employment
service providers, local One-Stop Career Centers and the Veterans
Employment and Training Service; State and local financial services
entities; social security benefits planning and assistance programs;
community and faith-based organizations and disability organizations;
community colleges and other training entities; and providers of
employment-related supports, including public housing and
transportation authorities;
(3) Employers and their professional networks;
(4) Federal agencies including the Departments of Labor, Health and
Human Services, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Treasury,
Transportation, Education, and Veterans’ Affairs; the Small Business
Administration and Social Security Administration; and other generic
and disability-specific agencies that work in areas related to
improving employment and economic self-sufficiency for adults with
disabilities and others with complex barriers to employment; and
(5) ODEP-sponsored and other Federal technical assistance projects
that provide information about, or work in areas related to, employment
(including self employment), economic development, and/or enhancing
employment profitability through use of relevant tax incentives,
financial literacy, work incentives, benefits assistance and related
areas).
Additionally, the Center will work with ODEP to implement on-site,
intensive, targeted technical assistance and research in two pilot
states or economic development regions. The pilot project will be
competitively selected by the third quarter of year 1 of Center
activities. Staff and expert consultant time and project resources
dedicated to provide technical assistance, research, and training
support to the competitively selected states or regions will be
negotiated with ODEP as part of the Cooperative Agreement within thirty
(30) days of the date of the award in year 1. However, it is expected
that a minimum of $600,000 is to be spent on the above component of the
work plan. Year 1 activities will include the development of targeted
technical assistance materials, a work plan (to be approved by ODEP)
for this component of Center activities, and design and implementation
of a competitive selection process for the states or economic
development regions. Intensive, on-site, targeted activities will begin
immediately with the competitively selected states or regions no later
than the first quarter of year 2 of Center activities, and will focus
on implementation of goal areas defined in this SGA throughout the
states or economic development regions. Additional funding for this
activity will be dedicated to this component of Center activities
during years 3-5 pending ODEP’s exercise of the option periods provided
herein, and the availability of funds and adequacy of performance.
The remainder of the funding that is provided is to be spent on
carrying out the general technical assistance, research, and training
functions in targeted goal areas described previously.