Background
Customised Employment Seed Projects 7/2023 – 12/2024
End-of-Ini a ve Report
Leela Raj, Program Lead for Special Projects
Keystone Ins tute India, a project of Keystone Human Services Interna onal, improves the lives of people with disabili es across India, crea ng a more inclusive, just Indian society where all are valued, and all belong.
One key objec ve that enables KII to meet this goal is to create more inclusive communi es through infrastructure development, learning opportuni es, and partnerships. We establish onthe-ground prac ce of services and support which demonstrate the transi on from theory to ac on. Supported and Customized Employment (SCE) is one major means by which we pursue this objec ve through important partners and alliances.
Three ac vi es helped us meet this objec ve:
1. Develop and implement the Cer ficate Program in Customized Employment with the op on of pursuing cer fica on in Discovery from Marc Gold & Associates (MG&A), USA.
2. Provide ongoing supports to organiza ons and employment specialists.
3. Provide assistance to organiza ons to start free-standing Customized Employment (CE) ini a ves.
This report evaluates the impact of ac vity 2 and 3 above.
Introduc on
We selected 3 ideal organiza ons to support free-standing ini a ves: All-inclusive Founda on in Bengaluru, Mental Health Founda on in Kolkata, and Ashish Founda on in Delhi. Each organiza on has 1 or more creden aled Customized Employment trained and Discovery cer fied Employment Specialist and therefore excellent representa on and “role model level” par cipa on. Following orienta on mee ngs with the three organiza onal leaders and iden fica on of 1 employment specialist within each organiza on, we signed MOUs with each organiza on to seed 3 CE projects with the purpose of evalua ng the efficacy and outcomes of applica on of CE strategies that had been learned. The CE seed projects started in July 2023 and end in December 2024.
Seed projects – the workings
Each organiza on had at least 1 CE/Discovery cer fied individual who took the lead in this ini a ve as an employment specialist. Two of the three organiza ons moved on to hiring addi onal person (s) to work on and provide assistance in the project who was trained and mentored by the lead in CE strategies including Discovery.
A CE alliance was developed amongst the 3 organiza ons who submi ed monthly reports to KII that helped keep track of progress in their CE ini a ves. In addi on, the alliance checked in monthly. Led by Project Leader, Leela Raj, this monthly mee ng of the alliance partners served the important purpose of sharing experiences, learnings, insights, and challenges.
Each organiza on started their CE ini a ve with around 3 job seekers each. Gradually, with increased confidence, they enlisted more job seekers for customized employment. Each employment specialist in each organiza on engages in Discovery – the process of iden fying interests, condi ons of work, and contribu ons – with some job seekers, and in job development with others with whom they have completed Discovery to explore fi ng employment opportuni es
Evalua on – a review of the accomplishments, challenges, and insights
The alliance partners have together enlisted 23 job seekers with intellectual & developmental disabili es for customized employment. Two of them fromMental Health Founda on havefound fi ng employment through this process. Four job seekers enlisted by Allinclusive Founda on did not pursue the process due to the inability or unwillingness of their families to commit and stay engaged. Subsequently, they are currently inac ve. While suitable employment is the goal for all job seekers being served, there are myriad addi onal good things that become visible as the job seekers move along this process including opportuni es to communicate their interests, demonstrate their talents and skills and the kind of support they might need, and the families’ respect and recogni on that here is an adult with unique gi s to offer and contribute. Below (Graph 1) is a graphical presenta on of the evalua ve data of the current status of the CE ini a ves in each organiza on.
1
The following notes are documented from interviews with each alliance partner and from informa on gleaned from the monthly mee ngs and reports.
Discovery has been a Game Changer
“Discovery” – the voca onal profile process that is unique to Customised Employment, has provided a different lens when working with the individual to discover much more about the individual, to look at them differently and understand them be er. The second step of CE, the CustomizedPlanningforEmploymentMee ng isahugevalueaddbyge ngpeopletogetherand yielding more inputs regarding poten al employment opportuni es.
Teamwork Helps
Having a team within the organiza on to work together on customized employment helps to brainstorm, ques on each other, reflect on what works and what doesn’t, mo vate each other, look at alterna ve strategies, review approaches and consider newer ways of thinking.
Power of Community
Regular CE alliance check ins enabled mutual support through sharing stories, learning from each other’s experiences, sharing notes, ven ng, and using other’s successes to pitch during job development.
Organiza on-Family Collabora on
Ensuring buy-in from families of job seekers at the outset is crucial to building a collabora ve rela onship between job seekers, families and employment specialists which in turn is necessary for new ideas, poten al employers, and networking in the community job market. While customized employment is an effec ve strategy to explore employment opportuni es for individuals with significant impact of disability, families must take equal responsibility to provide informa on, be open minded, and support the process.
The success of Customized Employment in terms of real employment is slow to see and requires persistenceandconvic on intheapproach.Backingoftheorganiza onalleadershipandreposing faith intheworkof the CEteam iscrucialtosustainingtheserviceandmaintaining themo va on of the stakeholders.
Challenges
- Job development con nues to be a challenge as the community is s ll slow to opening its doors to this new way of thinking and working. Mindsets are slow to change.
- Since scalability is slow, finding funders to support this service will remain a challenge
- The prevailing mindset of “place and pray” – securing jobs fast with li le thought to fit or sustainability and hoping it works- causes people with developmental disabili es to be le out of the employment market in the long term, but may generate much bigger job placement numbers in the short term.
Moving forward
Every organiza on that is a part of the CE alliance is commi ed to using the strategies of CE and offering it as one of their dedicated services to enable individuals with disabili es live full, meaningful lives. Despite the challenges men oned above, they are fully invested in taking the following steps to take forward what they have begun:
1. Develop a team of Discovery trained individuals to work with job seekers.
2. Explore poten al funders for the project.
3. Besides jobs, explore internshipopportuni es as the first step toward future employment as a way of ge ng a foot in the door.
4. Consider charging a fee for CE services. Every hour spent in the process needs to be billed reasonably to help sustain the service. Paid services make both families and staff more accountable.
5. NetworkamongCEcer fied serviceprovidersto sustainmo va onandlearnfrom shared experiences
Sustainability
All three allied organiza on that have been a part of the Seed Project CE Alliance are commi ed to con nuing to offer Customized Employment as one of their core services to the community regardless of seed funding con nua on. To be able to sustain the service, they recognize that charging a reasonable fee for this valuable service is inevitable and important.
Conclusion
Authen c work brings a richness and fullness to our lives in so many ways. Employment has largely been unavailable to people with significant intellectual and developmental disabili es or mental health issues. New ideas and new thinking are helping us learn to make room for people with disability in the workforce, and this is an exci ng area where change is brewing.
Many individuals from across India par cipated in the Cer ficate Course in Applied Customized Employment to explore one such idea – Customized Employment – as a promising pathway to employment for individuals with significant impact of disability and many earned an MG&A cer fica on in Discovery. The KIIseed projects helped create an alliance of cer fied CE specialists to jumpstart prac cal applica on of the principles and strategies of Customized Employment for job seekers who are otherwise not considered employable. Par cipants in the project got to see that Customized Employment can work; convic on, persistence, and collabora on will spur shi s in mindsets and pave the way for new opportuni es and possibili es to ensure that everyone including individuals with significant disabili es have access to the good things of life.
Lastly, we recommendthat we con nue RIST supported fundingassistanceto one organiza onof the above three, namely All-inclusive Founda on, Bengaluru. This organiza on is one of the CE service providers in the city with the founder/director being CE trained, and Discovery cer fied. The organiza on is rela vely small but very commi ed and dedicated to suppor ng individuals with developmental disabili es explore opportuni es to access the good things of life and thus a full, meaningful, and purposeful life.