Missoula children, their parents and supporters have teamed with Missoula Parks and Recreation to create the All-Abilities Playground Project in Missoula. This playground will be: "A play place for everyone, which invites many styles of play: physical, sensory, social, imaginative, creative and exploratory. A place accessible to parents and family members of all abilities. A place where every kid will find amazing things to discover and do."
 

The Montana Youth Leadership Forum will be held in Helena July 16-20. Applications are now being accepted for Delegates, Staff, and Presenters.

New success stories have been added to Real People, Real Jobs. This site features individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities working in paid jobs in their communities. Montana's own Melissa of Lissie's Luv Yums is one of several entrepreneurs profiled on the web site!

 

The January 3, 2012 NCWD/Youth blog Ready to Join the Club? Local Job Clubs Help Youth with Employment discusses the benefits of job clubs and provides several examples of what the clubs can do to help young people prepare for, find and maintain employment.

 

Improving Job Development Through Training and Mentorship, a Research to Practice brief from the Institute on Community Inclusion, describes the findings of a study designed to address this question: "Did employment consultants who attended training on individualized job-development strategies and follow-up mentoring assist more job seekers in gaining individual paid employment, compared to employment consultants who did not attend this training and mentoring program?" The study found that, on average, employment consultants who received the training and mentorship reported 3.4 more job placements than the control group.

 

Supporting the Education Pipeline: A Business Engagement Toolkit for Community-Based Organizations is designed to help commu­nity-based organizations recruit, engage, and develop ongoing relationships with businesses in their communities. The toolkit includes case studies, reports, examples and samples of tools and protocols.
 

Using Braided Funding Strategies to Advance Employer Hiring Initiatives that Include People with Disabilities [PDF], a report from ODEP's NTAR Leadership Center, describes a number of braided funding strategies being used across the country and suggests important lessons for state and local disability and workforce systems that seek to expand employment opportunities for job seekers with disabilities.

 

A second NTAR Leadership Center report, Using Medicaid Funding to Support the Employment of People with Disabilities: A Federal Framework [PDF], explores options for funding services that support employment through Medicaid and offers a number of examples from different states.

 

A Roadmap to a 21st-Century Disability Policy [PDF], an Issue Brief from the Center for Studying Disability Policy, discusses declining employment and household incomes of people with disabilities in recent decades and proposes programmatic and financial reforms to address the struc­tural problems of current disability policy.

 

Using TANF Funds to Support Subsidized Youth Employment: The 2010 Summer Youth Employment Initiative [PDF] examines qualitative data collected in 10 local sites across seven states to describe partnerships between state and local Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and workforce agencies that planned and administered summer youth employment initiatives. In addition to a thorough description of study findings, the report suggests activities worthy of further exploration including: Involving community colleges to a greater extent (classroom-based activities, exposing youth to postsecondary opportunities, opportunities for youth to become familiar with a college campus); providing upfront/ongoing workplace preparation (soft work skills, such as knowing how to dress, interact with coworkers, and apply and interview for jobs); and placing additional emphasis on mentoring.

 

The Skills That Work: A Toolkit for the Millennial Generation offers state-by-state data showing who is unemployed, by percentage, of 25-34 year olds with high school degrees, associate degrees, and bachelor degrees; how many jobs in that state are projected to require more than a high school diploma in 2018; the most popular majors, and the majors that had the best employment prospects in that state; the top growing jobs and occupations that require training or education after high school; and job resources and a glossary of occupations.

 

Bullying and Disability Harassment in the Workplace: What Youth Should Know from NCWD/Youth defines bullying, describes what it can look like in the workplace, and offers practical strategies for dealing with it.