Finding ways to combine public and employer-sponsored health care is still a specialty of only a handful of benefits planners nationwide. Modest investments of time in training staff can yield valuable results in new employment outcomes for people with disabilities.

WID’s California Work Incentives Initiative (CWII) provides information to help navigate those points where health coverage rules and benefits laws are most problematic and complex: when a consumer considers new employment or a job change, or when several programs interact with one another to support employment.

Our Approach

WID’s California Work Incentives Initiative (CWII) provides customized benefits planning trainings to community providers, public programs and community-based organizations. We have developed training curricula for half-day to two-day trainings, customized to the needs of diverse audiences. Trainings also cover the use of our online benefits calculators that show the effect of employment scenarios over time.

The CWII has trained public program staff across diverse organizations, such as

• Social Security and its Benefits Planning Assistance and Outreach (BPAO) Projects;

• the California Employment Development Department (EDD);

• Department of Mental Health;

• Department of Social Services (DSS);

• Department of Rehabilitation (DOR);

• Department of Health Services;

• independent living centers;

• educators in special education; and

• a range of community-based organizations working with people with disabilities.

CWII has worked collaboratively with county services in planning the logistics, content and curricula for these sessions.

For more information, contact:
Bryon MacDonald, Project and Policy Development Manager
Phone: 510-251-4304
Email: bryon@wid.org