Employment

National Technical Assistance and Research Center

The Boggs Center is collaborating with the Heldrich Center on Workforce Development at Rutgers University in the establishment of the National Technical Assistance and Research Center to Promote Leadership for Increasing Employment and Economic Independence of Adults with Disabilities (NTAR-Leadership Center).

The NTAR-Leadership Center was established in September, 2007 under a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy, and is a collaboration of partners with expertise in workforce development, disability and employment, economic development, financial education and benefits planning, and leadership development. The NTAR-Leadership Center 's mission is to increase the employment and economic independence of adults with disabilities by promoting engaged and sustained leadership and partnerships within and among states.

The NTAR-Leadership Center web site serves as a vehicle for knowledge exchange and information sharing, and provides state and local policy makers and practitioners with information, research, and learning tools needed to design policies and partnerships that strengthen leadership efforts to improve the employment and economic self-sufficiency of adults with disabilities.

The new NTAR Leadership Center Report, Ready and Able: Addressing Labor Market Needs and Building Productive Careers for People with Disabilities through Collaborative Approaches, describes market-driven practices that increase hiring, retention, promotion and accommodation of people with disabilities through partnerships with employers. Approaches profiled in the research include: collaborations between major national employers and public sector agencies; models that focus on an industry or occupational sector; private and “alternative” staffing services that place people with disabilities; partnerships that expand opportunities for college students and graduates with disabilities; and local and regional hubs that connect people with disabilities and employers. The research also profiles two organizations where lead disability and employment partnerships act as catalysts.

View the Ready and Able report

Resources

National Technical Assistance and Research Center

Campaign for Disability Employment

Project Director: Dan Baker, PhD
Consultant: Robert Nicholas, PhD