Click each service category to go to the section:
- Customized Employment
- Benefits Advisement
- Self-Advocacy
- Work Readiness
- Work Experience
- Job Exploration
- DSP / Personal Care Worker Academy
Customized Employment
Customized Employment (CE) is a person-centered employment approach designed to support individuals with disabilities who face significant barriers to traditional employment. The goal of Customized Employment is to achieve competitive integrated employment or self-employment by aligning an individual's unique strengths, interests, abilities, and support needs with the specific workforce needs of employers.
Unlike traditional job placement methods, Customized Employment does not rely on standard job competitions, resumes, or conventional interviews. Instead, the process focuses on discovering the individual's talents and contributions through a series of customized strategies, including discovery, vocational profiling, informational interviews, job shadowing, and the development of visual or virtual resumes. These tools allow individuals to demonstrate their capabilities in real-world settings and showcase the value they can bring to an employer.
Through a process of customized job development and employer engagement, employment opportunities are negotiated to create a mutually beneficial match between the job seeker and the employer. This approach emphasizes skills demonstration and relationship building rather than competitive hiring practices.
Participants work closely with peer mentors and employment specialists through their local Independent Living Center (ILC) and receive comprehensive employment and wraparound pre-employment supports. To ensure fidelity to nationally recognized best practices, Independent Living Center staff participating in the NY SWTCIE Demonstration Project have received specialized Customized Employment training and technical assistance from Griffin-Hammis Associates (GHA) in partnership with San Diego State University's Interwork Institute. This training ensures the Customized Employment process is delivered consistently and effectively, resulting in meaningful, sustainable employment outcomes for participants.
Benefit Advisement
Independent Living staff are certified to counsel project participants on how working could impact benefits such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Medicaid and Medicare. They can help families and individuals plan so that critical services are maintained while working. Project staff are certified by Cornell University to provide this service.
Self-Advocacy
Self-Advocacy teaches individuals how to speak up for themselves in the workplace if they feel they are not being treated fairly or if they have concerns in general. This series, which can be administered in groups or individually, will help participants understand their rights, how to speak up for themselves, and how to request accommodations on the job.
Work Readiness
Participants will learn appropriate workplace behaviors and abilities needed to succeed in the workplace. Participants will learn the basics such as dressing appropriately, time management such as arriving to work on time, and effective communication, among other skills.
Work Experience
Also known as a paid internship, a work experience gives people the opportunity to see what a job is like, and find out if it is something they want to pursue. Through the SWTCIE project, ACCES-VR would assist the individual with obtaining temporary work experience in the community and the individual would be paid for it.
Job Exploration
Job Exploration is the process of learning about different career paths as well as different industries and whether a job is the right fit for a person. SWTCIE is offering the opportunity to use cutting edge technology such as virtual reality goggles to explore various occupations. Other forms of job exploration are job shadowing where an individual would observe a person doing a specific job. A work experience as outlined earlier can also be a form of job exploration.
DSP / Personal Care Worker Academy
Under the SWTCIE project, ACCES-VR is offering a training opportunity designed to train people with significant disabilities to become Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), Assistant DSPs, or personal care workers under the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program. This is an exciting opportunity for participants who are interested in working in health care or in helping other people.