Supported Self-Employment: Challenging Values

by David Hammis and Nancy Maxson

Supported self-employment is based on supported employment and evolved naturally from it. Supported employment is defined as paid work in integrated settings, with supports necessary to maintain employment. Supported self-employment or supported entrepreneurial-employment may include resource ownership, partnerships, sole proprietorships, and contracting.

There is no single, correct supported self-employment approach and methods are constantly evolving due to the changing nature of business, supported employment methods, rehabilitation philosophy, and the economy. Supported self-employment has been used successfully with people diagnosed with mild, moderate, severe, or profound developmental disabilities; severe and persistent mental illness; severe brain injuries; and multiple severe disabilities. Supported entrepreneurial-employment closures have occurred even in the most remote and impoverished rural communities.

In spite of these successes, there remains in the world of disability services strong biases and prejudices about the self-employment potential of people with severe disabilities. The idea of self-employment for people with severe disabilities challenges values and beliefs entrenched in traditional rehabilitation and traditional self-employment assessments and methodologies. Some professionals consider the mere suggestion of self-employment "unrealistic," "a waste of tax payers' dollars," "impossible," "clearly not informed choice," "not demonstrable," "untestable," "not sustainable," and "unpredictable."

But supported self-employment works. It works because it creates employment options that previously did not exist. The employment arena is not a finite resource, although some in the human services field are convinced it is. Neither is employment development a passive activity. Jobs and businesses don't come to you. Creating employment, or self-employment, takes vigorous, relentless invention, partnership, collaboration, and just plain hard work. It also challenges traditional values and beliefs

Assessments

Professionals often rely on assessment tools to determine if a job seeker fits a potential job. Some of these existing rehabilitation methods and self-employment assessments may indicate that self-employment for a person with severe disabilities is unrealistic, nonsustainable, or impossible. Discard them.

It is imperative that no standardized or facility-based assessments are authorized or used for people with severe disabilities. Individuals with the most severe labels cannot be assessed in any meaningful way in segregated settings. No test or approach has been developed for use in a sheltered workshop, or is ever reasonably expected to be developed, that will have any predictive validity for even simple community employment. A segregated evaluation cannot yield useful information for supported entrpreneurial-employment.

Substantial research and evidence developed over the past several decades clearly prove community assessments, vocational profiles, and futures planning are the only relevant assessments worth using. And these methods all fit vocational rehabilitation protocol for assessments. These are the tools that job developers need.

The Myth of Independence

Another value that supported self-employment may challenge is independence. Self-reliance and independence are deeply-rooted American virtues. Our society doesn't always value people who are dependent or must rely on others. Independence brings respect, and respect translates into credibility, authority, and status. That is why those in the human service field have worked for years for greater independence for people with disabilities. (The agency we work for, The Rural Institute, is mandated by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities to help people with developmental disabilities increase "independence, productivity, and community inclusion.") Independent Living Centers exist to improve the independence of people with disabilities. We have come to believe that as long as they lack independence, people with disabilities will remain second class citizens.

But the word independence doesn't correctly represent the way any of us live. Interdependence more correctly describes the reality for most Americans, with and without disabilities. I am dependent on the grocer to provide food for my home, the power company to transmit electricity, and the city to pave my streets. I also rely on my family to support me through difficult times, my church to offer solace, and my doctor to ease my physical discomfort. And each of these people or organizations depends on me, and thousands like me, to thrive and grow. We are all interdependent.

Business owners hire others to help them run their business. Businesses rely on a wide range of outside "specialists," such as accountants, lawyers, graphic designers, and sales people. We don't expect entrepreneurs without disabilities to function independently; why do we assume that people with disabilities who want to start their own businesses must function independently, must have every business skill before they are "ready" to start their own businesses?

Independence is an important value, but don't allow the myth of independence to be a roadblock for people with disabilities who want to start their own businesses. Recognize that they will need to be interdependent and use specialists to help them achieve their entrepreneurial goals.

David Hammis is an Organizational Consultant at the Rural Institute and project director of the Montana Consumer Controlled Careers project. Nancy Maxson is the editor of the Rural Institute's newsletter, The Rural Exchange.