Tennessee Works Partnership: Changing the Employment Landscape Statewide

Abstract

The overall purpose of Tennessee Works Partnership: Changing the Employment Landscape Statewide is to raise the aspirations and capacities of young people by increasing collaboration across state systems to pursue integrated, competitive work as a realistic and first choice for youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The Vanderbilt Kennedy University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) and 28 agencies have collaborated to form the Tennessee Works Partnership (TWP) to stimulate systems and policy change. State partners include the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Department of Education, Department of Human Services Division of Rehabilitation Services, Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Council on Developmental Disabilities, and Higher Education Commission. The TWP will create statewide coordination of training, dissemination, and policy to equip families and educators across the state with accessible resources, training, and supports to enable them to successfully connect youth with disabilities to early work experiences. 

The TWP will accomplish these goals by developing a sustainable collaborative that engages youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families in a innovative, tiered training and dissemination model that strengthens the capacity and commitment of families, educators, and providers to deliver best practices that promote competitive employment and by establishing mechanisms to ensure the sustainability and long-term impact of TWP’s efforts.

Grantee

Vanderbilt University
1400 18th Ave. So.
Nashville, TN 37212-2809

Grant Number

90DN0294

Project Amount

$362,092 per year

Project Period

9/30/2012 – 9/29/2017

Contact

Erik Carter, Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Phone: (615) 875-3398
E-mail: erik.carter@vanderbilt.edu

AIDD Project Officer

Larissa Crossen
Phone: (202) 690-5999
E-mail: Larissa.Crossen@acl.hhs.gov