A National Survey of Employment Services Provided by Independent Living Programs (1992)

In conjunction with a research and demonstration project designed in part to support independent living (ILPs) in their efforts to increase activities addressing employability development and employment of their clientele, a national survey to ascertain the extent to which ILPs currently provide employment services was conducted. Employment services are defined as those services that are most directly associated with work preparation, job finding, and employment maintenance, as well as the development of job opportunities in the labor market. Although ILPs have the legal authority to offer employment services through the 1978 Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act (PL 95-602), a literature review failed to locate any empirical data on the extent and types of employment services that are presently provided by ILPs. Rehabilitation authorities recognize that ILPs are in a unique position to offer employability services to persons with severe handicaps. This is because employment success can often be achieved most efficiently in the community within the context of a long-term, comprehensive, in-depth rehabilitation program. Furthermore, ILPs are located in many rural areas where the state division of rehabilitation may have difficulty in locating and meaningfully serving persons with disabilities. In some rural areas, the ILP may be the only local service program targeting persons with disabilities. Method Instrument To determine the type and extent of employment services provided by ILPs, a four-page survey instrument was constructed. The first page requested descriptive information about the ILPs, such as number of staff members and number of consumers served. The second page listed 29 types of employment and non-employment services that could be offered by ILPs. The 29 types of services listed on the survey were selected from a previous survey (Jones, Petty, Bolles, & Mathews, 1986) of ILP service activity and were modified on the basis of a pilot survey with ILP executive directors. An effort was made to include all the types of services which ILPs might provide using descriptors which facilitated respondents' discriminations among services. Respondents indicated the amount of resources invested in each of the 29 categories of services using a three-point scale, major, minor, and insignificant (see Table 2 for definitions). The third and fourth pages of the survey form listed four common classes of employment services. Respondents indicated whether or not they provided each of the four classes of services by answering yes or no (see Table 3). The final question asked if any non-base grant funding to provide employment services was received and, if so, the source. Procedure The 359 ILPs listed in the Directory of Independent Living Programs (1989) constituted the population of ILPs for this study. The independent living contained in the directory include all bonafide independent living centers as well as other that provide independent living services. The directory also includes a few administrative entities (e.g., state rehabilitation service independent living coordinators), single service (e.g., reader services), and conventional rehabilitation or hospital within which independent living services are offered. These types of programs were omitted from the sample because they did not offer multiple independent living services. A random sample of ILPs was taken from the Directory for nine of the ten Division of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) regions. In HEW Region VI all ILPs were invited to participate. A total of 117 ILPs were asked to participate in the survey and 104 ILPs responded. The survey forms were addressed to each program's executive director or to a person designated by the executive director. In 76 cases the executive director completed the form. In 20 instances a program manager, someone designated as coordinator, or someone in another supervisory position completed the survey. …