Research Division

The issues and challenges facing the national supported employment initiative have changed dramatically since the program's inception in 1988. As supported employment has grown and become more diverse, the concerns and questions posed by consumers, employers, local service providers and state agencies have become more sophisticated and complex.

The program has been integrated into each state's basic vocational rehabilitation program. In many states, the program has grown to the point that "traditional" funding sources are insufficient to maintain the program at its present size, forcing local programs and state agencies to identify new and innovative funding strategies. Whereas initially, supported employment participants were overwhelmingly individuals with mild or moderate mental retardation, today persons with persistent mental illness, brain injury, cerebral palsy, autism, sensory impairments and other severe disabilities have all demonstrated their ability to benefit from supported employment services.

In 1996, a dozen or more agencies,rather than just two or three, may be simultaneously involved in funding supported employment acitivities in a particular state. While early efforts focused on building program capacity, in recent years a great deal of emphasis has been placed on the quality of service delivery and the issues related to program evalution. To meet these challenges, the Research Division of the VCU-RRTC has designed and is attempting to implement 25 distinct research investigations organized into seven research strands. The identified strands address the major priorities specified for the Supported Employment Research and Training Center.