The consortium for employment success: collaboration as a strategy to optimize employment outcomes for people with disabilities

Unemployment of individuals with disabilities has historically been, and remains, a significant problem. In this article we introduce the Consortium for Employment Success (CES) Model, a new strategy designed to increase collaboration among rehabilitation agencies (CES partners) to enhance employment opportunities for consumers. Most cooperation among rehabilitation agencies has operated at relatively low levels of operational collaboration. The CES model strives to produce a deeper level of collaboration by requiring CES partners to share employer development, job placement activities, and resources, thus becoming a collective resource for consumers and employers in the community. This article reviews literature related to collaboration, presents the conceptual framework of the CES model, and discusses some of the benefits and challenges in creating this type of collaboration.
The data concerning the high unemployment of people with disabilities is stark and stubbornly consistent. People with disabilities have much higher unemployment rates then people without disabilities (Burkhanser & Houtenville, [...]