What does the phrase "Heartland of America" conjure up in your mind? If you are imaging a place where: 89 percent of the land is devoted to farms, where the most populous city is less than 200,000 people, where there are 5 hogs for every person, a place where main street is still more than just another roadway, you would be imagining a state like Iowa.

Iowa is also a state that:

• Iowa has the fastest growing economy in the U.S. based upon the Gross State Product (GSP) (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2003 to 2004)
• Per capita personal income in Iowa grew at the second fastest growth rate in the U.S. (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2004)
• Exports of Iowa manufactured and processed goods grew to a record high of $6.4 billion in 2004, a 22 percent increase over the previous year. (U.S. Census Bureau)
• Sixth lowest nationally in business costs (Economy.com Inc. 2003)
• Among the top 10 states for "technology sophistication" in K-12 schools (Market Data Retrieval)
• Among the top 10 in academic research and development (National Science Foundation/Division of Science Res. Stats)
• Home to three state universities rated in the top 100 (Kiplinger)
  http://www.iowalifechanging.com/business/businessclimate.html

What most people do not think of when they think of Iowa is a state that has embraced people with disabilities and created a climate of inclusion. Due in large part to the work of three programs in the state, people with disabilities are being afforded the opportunity to build assets and become economic contributors. Unlike many other states, programs serving people with disabilities in the state of Iowa are helping drive asset building opportunities. Rather than wait for the asset building infrastructure to become inclusive and serve people with disabilities, these three programs have initiated the process.

Iowa's Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Program

Demonstrating the Power of Entrepreneurship
The Abilities Fund

What happens when progressive vocational rehabilitation administrators decide to make self employment a priority? Individuals with disabilities succeed as entrepreneurs. Many state rehabilitation agencies have learned that when provided with effective supports, their clients can start and sustain profitable business ventures. Nowhere is this clearer than in the State of Iowa. For the past ten years, IA Vocational Rehabilitation Services, the IA Department for the Blind, IA Department of Economic Development, and IA Finance Authority have benefited from a strategic partnership known as Iowa's Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Program (EWD). Managed by The Abilities Fund, the EWD combines a disability-sensitive approach to microenterprise development with the knowledge and support of the vocational rehabilitation system.

Individuals interested in self employment attend an initial training session that introduces them to the realities of business ownership. Those who decide to move forward work with an EWD business consultant to explore the feasibility of their idea in terms of the clients' technical capacity, the market potential and resources needed to ensure sufficient capitalization and profitability. If the client, counselor and consultant are in accord that the proposed venture is viable, the client declares self employment as the vocational goal and a new or amended Individual Plan for Employment is written.

Working from the information gathered during the feasibility phase, the client and business consultant then develop a comprehensive business plan including financial projections for the first twenty four months of operation. During this time, supplemental services such as benefits counseling, consultation on access to markets, accounting, and legal assistance may be provided as well.

Once the business plan is complete, the client can access up to $10,000 in financial assistance on a 1:1 match basis. The client matching requirements are flexible and may be derived from existing assets, cash from savings or family, capital from work incentives, Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) or microloans. The matching stipulation ensures that clients are fully invested in their business and that the rehabilitation system is not relied upon as the sole funding source. In the end, shared investment leads to business success.

More than 300 entrepreneurs have completed this process and successfully launched business ventures. These businesses have shown sustainability rates that far exceed national business failure averages. Many EWD clients have replaced public assistance with self employment earnings and a significant percentage of these entrepreneurs have decided to employ other individuals with disabilities.

One of the unique features of the Iowa model is in the nature of its funding. The Iowa EWD program is funded through a state appropriation that is matched with federal dollars. This allows for the purchase of services and provision of financial assistance for self employment cases to occur separate from general rehab agency dollars. This method can be replicated in any state where a rehabilitation agency is not fully leveraging the available federal appropriation.

The Abilities Fund offers staff training, program development and policy consultation to rehabilitation agencies to advance self employment as a successful vocational goal. In May 2006, The Abilities Fund will host a self employment policy development workshop for rehabilitation professionals.

For more information, visit www.abilitiesfund.org.

Improving Transition Outcomes

An Innovative State Alignment Grant for Improving Transition Outcomes for Youth with Disabilities Through the Use of Intermediaries Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation Services

A Governance Group of state agencies, collaborating to improve employment outcomes for Iowans with disabilities, received grant funding from the Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy to improve transition outcomes for youth with disabilities through the use of local intermediaries.

With Iowa Vocational Rehabilitation Services taking the lead, the Department for the Blind, Department of Education, Department of Human Rights Division of Persons with Disabilities, Department of Human Services, Governor's Developmental Disabilities Council and Iowa Workforce Development monitor this effort. Operating as Improving Transition Outcomes (ITO), this project is charged with

1. developing a State Transition Plan,
2. conducting statewide Resource Mapping,
3. sponsoring local demonstrations and
4. sustaining these accomplishments.

First year highlights show that VR is a critical partner.

Community Demonstrations

In Council Bluffs, Counselor Lisa Chellew partnered with a local high school teacher, in a Train-the-Trainer approach, to team-teach Job Seeking Skills. The value of this partnership was demonstrated by other teachers incorporating this unit into their curriculum and the successful, Status 26 closure, of a client who was offered a job after completing the Job Seeking Skills unit.

In Hawarden, Counselor Randy Van Zee partnered with West Sioux Com­munity School stakeholders to implement a curriculum based on the Intensive Psychiatric Rehabilitation model. Randy's expertise has been invaluable and school referrals to VR have significantly increased.

In Henry County, VR Supervisor Ruth Allison and VR Counselor Christian Gapen have been instrumental in securing connections with the local schools. Ruth assisted with gathering and organizing information from youth, families and educators for a "Sharing Key Discoveries" meeting attended by over 30 area stakeholders.

Success Highlights

Council Bluffs successfully:

1. Implemented E-Mentoring between more than thirty-five youth from six area high schools and employees from seven local employers
2. Identified job shadow and work experience opportunities
3. Recruited six youth to participate in the local Leadership Camp.

Hawarden successfully:

1. Implemented the C.A.S.E. curriculum based on Boston University's Intensive Psychiatric Rehabilitation
2. Opened the "Falcon Joe" coffee shop to provide entrepreneurial experience for youth
3. Secured businesses for classroom presentations, job shadows and work experiences.

Henry County successfully:

1. Conducted focus groups with youth and families and individual interviews with youth to identify “what is and isn't working with transition”
2. Conducted a "Sharing Key Discoveries" meeting with over 30 local stakeholders developing a Strategic Plan
3. Established a Youth Advisory Group of ten students with disabilities.

Strengths & Challenges

Council Bluffs has expertise in mentoring and connecting employers and schools; they want more youth/family in­volvement and to strengthen their connection with the schools.

West Sioux has a strong school connection, expertise in youth participation, vocational curriculum and locally grown entrepreneurship; they want to imple­ment mentoring.

Henry County has expertise in conducting focus groups with youth and families; they want to implement vocational exploration and mentoring. The strengths of one community provide a resource for another. By sharing "how we did it," communities across the State of Iowa will develop and implement strategies specific to their local needs. In this manner Iowa will achieve healthy sharing, learning, recreation, goal-setting and problem-solving, not only for youth with disabilities but for all youth.

ITO - IVRS
510 E 12th Street
Des Moines, IA 50319
515-281-0275

www.iowaemploymentpartners.com

Smart Start

Enhancing Access, Equity, and Opportunity for Youth with Disabilities The Employment Policy Group

What is Smart Start?
It is a research project to help students with disabilities to maximize their economic self-sufficiency as they transition from school to work

What is the purpose of Smart Start?
The project is designed to test service delivery systems to discover how communities can merge services and resources to support the successful transition of youth with disabilities from high school to work or post-secondary education

Why is this important?
There are several key reasons:

1. To help students with disabilities to do well in school
2. To increase the graduation rates of students with disabilities
3. To expand students' with disabilities opportunities for college
4. To help young people with disabilities gain employment
5. To help young people with disabilities generate income
6. To assist and support them to save money and build financial assets for their future
7. To help young people with disabilities move out of or avoid poverty
8. To provide the support to allow them to self-direct their education, supports, and services

Who can participate in Smart Start?
Students with disabilities aged 14 to 25 residing within the Mason City Community School District and all Story County public school districts may enroll in Smart Start

What are the advantages of participation?
Youth and their families can take advantage of the five "discretionary program rules" from the Social Security Administration:

1. If a youth no longer meets the Supplemental Security Income "disability test", the Social Security Administration will pay benefits for as long as the individual remains in the project
2. Student income exclusion will apply to all project participants, not just those under age 22, as provided by law
3. The general earned income exclusion will be increased
4. The project extends preferential treatment to savings in individual development accounts (IDAs) to IDAs that do not involve federal funds and exclude countable income earnings placed in an IDA
5. Project participants can have broader goals for PASS accounts to allow for career exploration or post-secondary education

What services are available under the project?

• Financial education and counseling is available through either the North Iowa Community Credit Union or the Greater Iowa Credit Union to support youth on how manage money and build financial assets
• An option to receive a cash allowance to purchase the services youth need and want from a vendor of their choosing
• Unbiased information and advise from an Independent Support Broker
• Student- and family-directed individual education planning
• Job Shadowing-Bringing a project participant into the workplace for a day, spending one-on-one time with an employee
• Work-based learning opportunities for students with Individual Education Plans to earn credit for and learn academic subjects such as reading, writing and math in a manner that adapts to their learning styles and develops their abilities
• A Single Company Internship-typically a paid work experience in which a company hires a project participant for a definite period of time
• A Rotating Internship-project participants can observe a number of companies in various industries over a specific length of time

Who is involved?
Iowa was one of six states recently awarded Youth Transition Process Demonstration Projects by the Social Security Administration. Smart Start's project partners are:

• The University of Iowa Center for Disabilities and Development's Employment Policy Group
• Mason City Community Schools
• All Story County Public School Districts
  • Ames
  • Ballard
  • Collins-Maxwell
  • Colo-Nesco
  • Gilbert
  • Nevada
  • Roland-Story
• North Iowa Community Credit Union
• Iowa Credit Union League
• Iowa Department of Human Services

Who is overseeing this effort?
The project is managed by the Employment Policy Group. The project is connected to stakeholders throughout Iowa by way of the Real Choices Olmstead Consumer Task Force.

For more information, you may contact:
The Employment Policy Group
Center for Disabilities and Development
108 3rd Street, Suite 350
Des Moines, IA 50309
Telephone: 515-283-2310
Fax: 515-283-2307
Email: e-epg@uiowa.edu
Web: http://www.e-epg.info

For Mason City project site information, call 641-422-1508
For Story County project site information, call 319-267-9650

Conclusion

What does this mean to those living outside the Iowa borders? Are there lessons to be learned that apply to areas outside the "Heartland of America"? Statistically, there is approximately the same percentage of people with disabilities in the state of Iowa as any other state; yet, the employment rate is higher than the national average (42.5% in Iowa, 37.5% Nationally- 2004 Disability Status Report, Cornell University http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ped/disabilitystatistics/index.cfm?n=1).

As the U.S. Federal government continues to adopt more state-centric approaches, both in funding and in program services, challenges and opportunities are presented. This decentralization means that states are being given more control over how dollars are spent, how services are directed, and who receives priority. In the case of Iowa, this has resulted in seized opportunities for people with disabilities and the people that provide services. If the present trend continues, more state-based demonstration programs and waivers will be available. If these models are truly to be beneficial and serve their intended purpose, it is imperative that other states learn from their successes and failures. Iowa is proof of what can happen when people with disabilities and their economic success receive priority.

In the case of Iowa, this has resulted in seized opportunities for people with disabilities and the people that provide services. If the present trend continues, more state-based demonstration programs and waivers will be available. If these models are truly to be beneficial and serve their intended purpose, it is imperative that other states learn from their successes and failures. Iowa is proof of what can happen when people with disabilities and their economic success receive priority.

For specific recommendations, see the December 2005 EQUITY's Tip of the Month and Responds sections for additional information.