Introduction
By Cary
Griffin, Director of Training
The Rural Institute
The University of Montana
This monograph represents an amalgamation of articles and resources from invited contributors and the personnel, consumers, and family members associated with eleven community employment demonstration sites we established this year across Montana. Our hope is that this publication exemplifies best practices in community employment, stirs interest in entrepreneurship, and showcases the inventiveness of rural residents. Employers, demonstration site staff, consumers, families, local Social Security personnel, and Montana Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors all contributed significant effort to the substantial outcomes of these projects. Continued thanks go to Joe Mathews, Montana’s Director of Disability Services, for his ongoing advice and counsel.
The projects represented here focus on creating jobs for individuals with the most severe disabilities using both unique and tested supported employment, self-employment, and consumer-directed approaches. Projects include the Montana Career Design Initiative, funded by Developmental Disabilities Planning and Advisory Council (DDPAC); the Montana Rural Employment Initiative Special Projects and Demonstrations Initiative, funded by the Rehabilitation Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Education; and the Montana Consumer Controlled Careers Program, funded by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Together, these projects and the associated consumers, staff, and employers developed approximately 30 jobs this year, mostly for people once considered “too disabled” for employment.
Special thanks go to all those Montanans who wrote to share their personal experiences. We also appreciate the ongoing efforts of John and Connie Lyle O’Brien, two clear voices in building community. Thanks to Kelly Lawless in Texas, Margo Stevens in Utah, and Dan Rounds, Bernie Grimme, and Dave Miller in South Dakota, our friends and colleagues outside Montana, for contributing to this resource.
Please use the resources in this manual and let us know what works and what you want to see in the future. If you want your agency to become a demonstration site, need training or technical assistance, or need help finding a job or launching a small business, we are here to help.
Thanks again to all our many collaborators!