Building Capacity for Outreach to Asian Americans with Disabilities
The Center for Capacity Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research (CCBMDR) has received funding from the ARRA-funded initiatives of the Illinois Human Services Department’s Division of Rehabilitation Services (IDRS) to launch an 18-month capacity-building outreach project to address an important service gap. This new initiative will develop and test a strategy to increase the capacity of vocational rehabilitation agencies to reach out to Chicago-based Asians with disabilities, to ensure that they gain access to culturally appropriate vocational rehabilitation (VR) services and employment options.
Compared to other ethnic and racial minorities with disabilities, Asian Americans with disabilities are under-represented in the U.S. rehabilitation and disability system. In Illinois, the proportion of Asian Americans being served by the state vocational rehabilitation (VR) system is only 2.13% or 976 individuals out of a total of 45,863 (DRS VR Data FY 2008). These numbers are alarmingly low given the large population of Asians in the Chicago area.
The racial category of “Asian” in the U.S. census is very broad and includes individuals from multiple ethnic, racial and linguistic groups. These individuals may have unique vocational needs and face different barriers than other ethnic groups living in the area. One such barrier to service is the insulating nature of the Asian community itself; another is the limited capability of DRS to conduct outreach to these culturally and linguistically unique communities.
Therefore outreach activities are needed in these communities to build an information-sharing partnership that can benefit those Asian with disabilities who may need vocational rehabilitation supports and services. In response, CCBMDR researchers will conduct a needs assessment and use the information to develop an instructional guide or toolkit highlighting culturally relevant outreach strategies and successful practices that can help bridge the service gap for the Asian community and the disability VR system in the greater metropolitan Chicago area.
Contact Information
Rooshey Hasnain, Ed.D.
Visiting Research Assistant Professor and Project Director
Department of Disability and Human Development
Center for Capacity Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research
University of Illinois at Chicago
1640 Roosevelt Road-Room 451-A
Chicago, IL 60608-6904, USA
(312) 413-0416 (phone)
(312) 413-1804 (fax)
(312) 413-0416 (tdd)
A Quality Assurance Model for Vocational Rehabilitation Service Delivery
The National Council on Disability (2007) suggests that overall employment rates for people with disabilities remain far too low, compared to those for people without disabilities. According to the Disability Status Report (2006) prepared by researchers at Cornell University, which uses data from the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS), only 38% of working-age people (ages 16 to 64) with disabilities are employed full-time or part-time, compared with 76.9% of individuals without disabilities.
In response, the Illinois Department of Rehabilitation Services (IDRS) has developed strategies and initiatives to increase employment opportunities and improve outcomes for individuals accessing services. IDRS collects data on many aspects of the agency’s operations, but does not always use it as a key resource in making decisions on service delivery and policy. As part of an organizational development effort, the Center for Capacity Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research (CCBMDR) has received funding from the ARRA-funded projects of the Illinois Human Services Department’s Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS), to launch a 19-month capacity-building outreach project.
The project will help the IDRS implement a strategy encouraging office supervisors to better utilize data in order to improve case management and counselors’ performance. The researchers at CCBMDR will review DRS data use capacities, and identify areas of strength and weakness, in order to remediate weaknesses; they will also provide training, consultation and technical assistance. The solutions this project implements should improve case management in the VR service delivery process, making it more efficient and effective. The findings of this project will be disseminated, both locally and nationally, to inform understanding and improvements in client-level VR data use.
Contact Information
Rooshey Hasnain, Ed.D.
Visiting Research Assistant Professor and Project Director
Department of Disability and Human Development
Center for Capacity Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research
University of Illinois at Chicago
1640 Roosevelt Road-Room 451-A
Chicago, IL 60608-6904, USA
(312) 413-0416 (phone)
(312) 413-1804 (fax)
(312) 413-0416 (tdd)
The Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Peer Mentoring Project
The Center for Capacity Building for Minorities with Disabilities Research (CCBMDR) has started a new project on October 1st 2009 that will focus on the reintegration of individuals with newly, Violently Acquired Spinal Cord Injuries (VASCIs). The project is funded by the Illinois department of human services and will work closely with hospitals, VR, and community based organizations in the Chicago land area which will refer patients to the program. The program participants will be assigned a peer mentor who also has a VASCI. The peer mentors will work with their mentees on achieving various personal and professional goals such as gaining employment, going to school, and independent living. In addition to providing emotional and social support. The ultimate goal of the project is that the Department of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) will adopt the peer mentor program as permanent resource available to everybody with a SCI throughout the state of Illinois.
Division: Community and Prevention Psychology
Faculty Name or Faculty Sponsor: Fabricio Balcazar
Contact Information
Shawn Dimpfl, MSc.
Project Coordinator
Department of Disability and Human Development
Center for Capacity Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research
University of Illinois at Chicago
1640 Roosevelt Road-Room 444
Chicago, IL 60608-6904, USA
(312) 413-4149 (phone)
(312) 413-1804 (fax)
(312) 413-0416 (tdd)