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Maine's CHOICES CEO Project

About the Project

Visualize a future in which workers with disabilities are employed in jobs that meet their personal and financial needs. A future in which Maine's employers have access to a wider pool of reliable and talented workers. A future in which the community expects that people with disabilities can and will participate in the workforce to the greatest extent possible.

This is what the Maine CHOICES CEO Project is about.

Who Is Involved

One of our first activities was creating a coalition of people and organizations from the public and private sectors. Coalition members include the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, the Maine Jobs Council, the Commission on Disability and Employment, and many interested individuals with and without disabilities. For a full listing see Project Partners.

Initiatives

Coalition members spent the first year of this project leaning about the concerns and experiences of employers, service agencies and people with disabilities. The result was Working Together, a strategic plan for maximizing employment for people with disabilities. This plan will guide the activities of this project in the coming years.

Key initiatives are:

1. Create an employer outreach and education plan.
2. Establish Maine state government as a model employer for people with disabilities.
3. Provide greater support for young people with disabilities who are transitioning from school to work.
4. Improve vocational rehabilitation services.
5. Expand work incentives planning and assistance.
6. Enhance data collection pertaining to workers with disabilities and ensure that relevant data can be easily shared among service providers.
7. Improving Work Incentives for People with Disabilities Who Receive Benefits, Especially "MaineCare (Medicaid) Option for Workers with Disabilities"

Funding

Funding for the CHOICES CEO Project is provided by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as a Medicaid Infrastructure Grant (MIG). The MIG program supports efforts to help people with disabilities secure and sustain competitive employment in integrated settings. The Maine project builds on the success of its first MIG project that operated from 2000-2004.

Project Visual

Our Project Visual is an overview of our strategic plan implementation activities for CHOICES CEO 2006-2008. (PDF, Description)

CHOICES CEO activities are staffed out of the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. This web site is part of the CHOICES CEO project, funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services through a grant to Maine's Department of Health and Human Services (grant #11-P-92409/1-03). Views expressed do not represent official policy of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, or the University of Southern Maine.