October 23, 2017

by: Guest Contributor

The Employment Collaborative of Cuyahoga County

This month’s expert article was written by Jared Daly, Coordinator of Employer Engagement at Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities, and the lead facilitator of the Employment Collaborative of Cuyahoga County.

The Employment Collaborative of Cuyahoga County (ECCC) is a group of 34 agencies located in Cuyahoga County that has been gaining statewide attention in recent months. The Collaborative was established in 2014 when employees from the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities (CCBDD); UCP of Greater Cleveland’s OakLeaf Partners; Linking Employment, Potential and Abilities (LEAP); and Koinonia Homes, Inc. realized that the current employment services model was not conducive to true person-centered planning and helping people with developmental disabilities gain employment. The staff from these agencies all recognized the huge gap in connecting businesses willing to offer potential employment opportunities to individuals with disabilities to the applicant pool being served by the county at large. Each agency was forward thinking enough to realize that if the developmental disability (DD) field was truly going to represent itself to employers as a business and hiring solution, they would have to connect and aggregate each agency’s job seeker talent pool.

This idea was foreign to the DD field as in the past agencies worked in a competitive nature and the sharing of job leads or job seekers was not a common practice. In the Collaborative’s first year, meetings were simply focused on building relationships, establishing rules, messaging, and creating a mission- “To offer the business community opportunities to access trained and diverse candidates who meet business workforce needs.” This mission focuses on the solutions offered by job seekers with disabilities without focusing on their disability. Goals were created to help businesses create single points of contact that could tap into an aggregated pool of all job seekers in the area with a disability in order to lead to better job matches and higher success (retention) rates.

Since 2016, the Collaborative has helped 115 individuals with disabilities gain employment. The group is led by Jared Daly, coordinator of employer engagement for CCBDD, who serves as the lead facilitator. Eric Hibinger of OakLeaf Partners and Bill Marras of LEAP serve as co-chairs to assist in the direction and progress of this already impactful group.  “I truly believe that having the right people at the helm will allow us to take the Collaborative to new heights. It was such a wonderful opportunity to be granted the distinguished position of co-chair within this group. I truly believe that this group has the right people, in all of the right places, to really provide the best service as possible,” said Hibinger about his new role.

The Collaborative is always willing to add new members that share in its mission of helping individuals with disabilities find employment. By being a part of the Collaborative, providers now have a new way to message their services to businesses. This has been very well-received by the business community. Staff providing employment services can connect with a business and offer solutions to their hiring needs with the confidence of the Collaborative’s candidate pool, extending to over 2,000 job seekers.

If you are an organization that provides employment services to individuals with disabilities and would like information on joining, please email employmentcollaborative@cuyahogabdd.org. There is no membership fee to join, and all that is needed is a passion and desire to serve the purpose and mission of the group.

In 2018, the Collaborative is excited to already have scheduled five hiring events along with eight community fundraisers that will bring in the community to participate in events inclusive of people with disabilities. We are looking forward to building on our success as well laying the blueprint for other counties to follow our successful example. The Collaborative is also working to provide common provider training for partner agencies in the areas of job development, job coaching and employment area management.  Ultimately, the Collaborative’s leadership and members realize that the best way to open doors with employers is to provide superb services that meet their needs and those of the consumers.

For me personally, this group’s impact on the DD field has been unmeasurable. The best part is when I get to go out and talk with one person the group helped gain employment, especially when they tell me about how happy they are to be working and what their job has meant to them. As we continue to push to help more and more individuals with disabilities find employment, we will never forget the individual impact of each person we help.

We are looking forward to continued success in Cuyahoga County and hope to one day see our model implemented in all counties throughout the state.

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