Report on April Employment Summit in the Great Recession — World Institute on Disability

On April 7 and 8, 2011, the World Institute on Disability, Mathematica Policy Research, and the National Council on Independent Living convened an invitational summit at the Mathematica offices in Washington, D.C. Participants known to hold a wide range of policy perspectives were invited, including policy analysts, advocates, government and private sector researchers, insurance representatives, along with Congressional and Administration staff. Former and current senior Social Security Administration staff from the 1980s to the present joined the dialogue, as well as officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

The goal of the Summit, as described in the event invitation, was to come to consensus on solutions for the low employment rates of Americans with disabilities in the context of the country's fiscal and deficit environments. Over the one and one-half day Summit, participants focused on policy changes and resource realignment that would help workers with disabilities, or workers who first experience disability while working, stay in the labor force rather than enter the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program.

via wid.org

With the recession re-asserting itself, this Summit is more important than ever.

Financial services for the poor: The big save - Summify

via summify.com
TWO years ago Sabina sold flowers on the street from a shopping trolley. Today she has her own storefront in Queens, thanks to a $1,500 loan from Grameen America, a microfinance institution based on Grameen bank, which was founded by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh. Since opening its first American branch in January 2008, Grameen has found fertile ground. It has lent more than $25m to 7,300 borrowers. At 15%, interest rates are high, but far less than a loan shark or payday lender would charge (the annualised interest on a payday loan is typically 400%, sometimes twice that), and there are no other fees or collateral required. Grameen America’s repayment rate is around 99%. It now has branches in four of New York’s five boroughs, and plans to open in Washington, DC, North Carolina and California. It also has one in Omaha and Indianapolis.

The State of Employment in Our Community

“Today, we will focus the HELP Committee’s attention on an often overlooked piece of the employment puzzle—the shockingly low labor force participation rates of workers with disabilities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), as of August, there were more than 15 million adults with disabilities in the U.S. between the ages of 16 and 64. Of this group, less than one third were participating in the labor force, and over two thirds were not in the labor force. Although BLS has only been reporting on disability employment rates in their monthly updates since 2008, it is worth noting that the size of the disability labor force has shrunk by over 600,000 people in the three years for which we have data. That represents a more than 10 percent reduction in three years. During the same period, the size of the workforce for people without disabilities shrunk by less than one percent. That means in the last three years, people with disabilities have been leaving the labor force at a rate more than 10 times the rate of the non-disabled population. This is unacceptable and we need to take action to change this trend." -Tom Harkin

There are many solutions that improve employment for specific individuals with disabilities. But in Michigan, there are more than half a million persons with a disability that interferes with work. The real issue is that these successful methods don't scale very well. Even Michigan Rehabilitation Services only helps a couple tens of thousands each year.

Part of the problem is that most people with disabilities don't see themselves as members of a community of people with common barriers and interests. Instead, they use the same default stereotypes that people without disabilities use in judging themselves and their chances of employment.

More later......