Community partnerships are outcome-based relationships that can facilitate disability hiring and retention efforts. Regardless of size, employment sector, or industry, businesses benefit from agreements with national, regional, and local organizations.
Finding Applicants with Disabilities
Many organizations can help your business hire, retain, and support employees with disabilities. Some of these organizations are large and work across the country or a state; others are small and may only work in a single city or county. Below are a few profiles of these organizations.
Every state has a vocational rehabilitation agency to provide vocational and educational support and services for people with disabilities. State VR agencies are funded by state and federal governments. State VR agencies may be reached through The National Employment Team (NET), sponsored by the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation (CSAVR). NET is a national collaboration among 78 Vocational Rehabilitation agencies operating in every state and U.S. territory. NET partners with businesses to connect employers and qualified job seekers, leveraging a national network of communication and dissemination channels.
VR agencies also offer a variety of business services and can facilitate connections with other workforce development agencies and partner organizations at the national and local levels.
Ask Regional Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Directors and other VR representatives to attend staff meetings to discuss your business needs.
Invite VR Directors to speak at hiring events.
Develop a relationship with a contact person within each VR region where you do business.
Many community-based and national nonprofit organizations provide employment services for people with disabilities. Some agencies operate across a state or region, others may only be in one city or county. They can offer a variety of supports, such as candidate referral, accommodations assistance, training, technical assistance, job coaching, travel training, and transportation support.
Centers for Independent Living (CIL/SILC) are community-based nonprofit agencies that are largely governed and operated by people with disabilities. They serve a diverse client base of people with a variety of skills.
To connect with community-based agencies:
Use contacts at state VR agencies to assist with locating agencies and agency consortia.
Ask for assistance and a "warm hand-off" from other workforce development partners.
Ask for information on community agencies from employees and colleagues – many may have worked with an organization themselves or have connections or family members who have.
State workforce development systems include entities such as American Job Centers, Workforce Development Boards, and Employment Networks designated by the Social Security Administration’s Ticket-to-Work program. These services help workers apply for jobs, find work, and gain relevant training. Federal contractors subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) are required to work with state and local workforce agencies.
Find your closest American Job Centers (AJCs) (sometimes called workforce centers) using the national AJC finder.
Ensure the center’s staff understands that you are interested in hiring candidates with disabilities.
Participate in local and regional workforce activities such as business round tables, hiring events, and seminars, and attend the meetings of the local workforce development boards.
Businesses often recruit on college campuses and have established relationships with AJCs or workforce center offices. However, most colleges, community colleges, and universities have standalone student disability services offices and veterans’ services offices which are not always notified of these relationships.
To connect with educational institutions:
Contact the school’s career services offices and let them know you are interested in offering internships and other opportunities to college students with disabilities and student veterans.
Make a special effort to reach out to student disability service offices and student veteran offices on every campus where you recruit.
Reach out to secondary Career and Technical Education programs and/or local school district special education directors and offer to provide work-based learning experiences for students.
Use programs established specifically to connect employers with students with disabilities, including the Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP) which is comprised of qualified college students and recent graduates.
Creating Community Partnerships
If you are planning a partnership to support hiring or retaining employees with disabilities, check if the partner meets some or all these criteria:
Located within a reasonable distance to the employment site
Serves candidates who are qualified for positions in high demand
Utilizes networks of other employment service providers to expand candidate outreach
Provides reasonable accommodation consultation and assistance
Provides resources for assistive technology procurement or training
Provides consistent data on applicant flows and referrals
Develops training and resources on a range of disability topics
Offers a central point of contact for referrals in multiple locations, if possible
Offers a diverse variety of job candidates with different skills and qualifications
Provides support for transportation to and from work (e.g., travel training or finding carpool partners)
Links employees to supports outside the workplace, such as caregiving support
Remember that some organizations are highly specialized and may only focus on certain aspects listed here. For example, some groups focus on helping procure assistive technology for workers with disabilities and train them to use it. Other organizations focus on one area – even one neighborhood – or one type of disability.
Deepening and Sustaining Partnerships: Steps to Success
Take these steps to make your relationships with community partners more useful and sustainable:
Get involved. Reach out to learn about the systems, organizations, and services already in place to support employment for people with disabilities. If your organization works in multiple places, embed personnel wherever you recruit, to better understand local and regional disability workforce partners and initiatives.
Invite collaboration. Find partners willing to assist in locations where candidates will be recruited and trained. Get involved in activities such as business advisory groups, job fairs, and event committees.
Evaluate fit. Find potential collaborators who share your values and objectives.
Dedicate resources. Develop relationships and find the resources you need to fuel partnership efforts, such as funding for supportive services or training from local agencies, or sponsoring disability-focused career events.
Expect relationship development to take time. Many projects or joint efforts require time to plan. In addition, both sides need time to learn how each partner’s process works and in what ways they work best together.
Identify gaps. Use strategic relationships to fill gaps in the internal process. For example, seek out partners who can help with the use and integration of assistive technologies in the workplace. Some businesses leverage partnerships to increase capacity with hiring initiatives. Many organizations develop partnerships with agencies that can supplement on-the-job coaching and training assistance provided by managers.
Identify mutual goals. Ensure partners can meet your workforce needs for a diverse candidate pipeline, training, or supportive services, as defined by company objectives. Potential partners will also have criteria for outcomes.
Measure progress. Create metrics to analyze progress and use them to define success. This can be done by tracking the number of candidate referrals who are converted to hires, or the number of trainees who complete a sponsored training program. Celebrate the wins along the way.
Evaluate and refine. Regularly meet and communicate to evaluate partnership agreements to ensure progress toward intended outcomes. Make changes as needed to ensure investments in workforce partnerships are yielding results.
Case Studies
Below are case studies regarding businesses that have taken steps to develop partnerships with organizations to help include more people with disabilities in talent pipelines and workplaces:
Learn about JPMC’s Business Solutions Team (BeST), which consists primarily of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their pivot to remote work during the pandemic.
Employer Case Study: Learn how CVS Health's Abilities in Abundance program leverages partnerships to support its disability-focused hiring initiatives.
