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Maine's CHOICES CEO Project

Working Together
Maine's Strategic Plan to Maximize Employment for People with Disabilities

The Challenge

The last decade has seen positive developments for people with disabilities who work or who want to work:

• More students with disabilities are graduating from high school and going on to college.
• Recent technologies have expanded the number of jobs workers with disabilities can perform.
• The combination of new global markets, a growing service sector, and the aging of Maine's workforce has increased demand for skilled workers.

Despite these developments, however, the number of people with disabilities in the Maine workforce has not increased.

How This Plan Came About

In 2005, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor worked with a coalition composed of people from the public and private sectors to address this issue.

Coalition members held focus groups with employers, people with disabilities, and service organizations. Attendees were asked to share their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities surrounding the issues of disability and employment.

Information from those focus groups and other sources of research was compiled. Coalition members then identified several ways to strengthen workplace opportunities.

The result of these efforts is Working Together: Maine's Strategic Plan to Maximize Employment for People with Disabilities.

What's Happening Now

The Commission on Disability and Employment is leading the implementation of this plan, with assistance from coalition partners. Interested employers, organizations and individuals are encouraged to take part.

Ongoing efforts include:

1. Creating an employer outreach and education plan.
2. Establishing Maine state government as a model employer for people with disabilities.
3. Providing greater support for young people with disabilities who are transitioning from school to work.
4. Improving vocational rehabilitation services.
5. Expanding benefits counseling to people with disabilities who work, or who want to work.
6. Enhancing data collection about workers with disabilities and ensuring that data can be shared among service providers.
7. Improving Work Incentives for People with Disabilities Who Receive Benefits, Especially "MaineCare (Medicaid) Option for Workers with Disabilities"

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 #1QACMS030316). Views expressed do not represent official policy of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, or the University of Southern Maine.