Making Self-Employment Work for People with Disabilities. This item is unavailable.Making Self-Employment Work for People with Disabilities

Self-employment is a viable option for adults with significant disabilities—and now there’s a book that gives you the guidance you need to help individuals start and maintain their own small businesses. Whether you’re a counselor, an employment specialist, or a transition professional, you’ll benefit from

• an in-depth discussion of person-centered business planning and its primary components
• a step-by-step guide to building a business plan, complete with illuminating case studies and examples
• a thorough overview of marketing tactics, including aspects like defining customers, conducting research, positioning the product, and advertising in a variety of media
• chapters on finances and social security
• a spotlight on the supportive roles of rehabilitation personnel, vocational counselors, school transition staff, and community programs like Ticket to Work and Plans for Achieving Self Support
• photocopiable worksheets that help individuals pinpoint their interests, strengths, and goals
• a list of more than 50 web sites, including links to SSA and other government sites

Perfect for sharing with individuals with disabilities and their families, this guidebook shows how self-employment can work and offers the realistic, practical advice needed to get a small business off to a strong start.

Mr. Griffin is Senior Partner at Griffin-Hammis Associates, LLC, a full-service consultancy specializing in building communities of economic cooperation, creating highperformance organizations, and focusing on disability and employment. He is also Codirector of the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Self-Employment Technical Assistance, Resources, and Training project with Virginia Commonwealth University and former Director of Special Projects at the Rural Institute at The University of Montana. He is also past director of an adult vocational program in southern Colorado, former Assistant Director of the Rocky Mountain Resource and Training Institute, and former Founder and Executive Director of CTAT in Colorado.

Mr. Hammis is Senior Partner at Griffin-Hammis Associates, LLC, a full-service consultancy specializing in building communities of economic cooperation, creating highperformance organizations, and focusing on disability and employment. He maintains an ongoing relationship with the Rural Institute at The University of Montana, where he served as Project Director for multiple self-employment, employment, and Social Security outreach training and technical assistance projects, including the Rural Institute’s Rural Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment Expansion Design Project. He works with organizations nationally and internationally on self-employment, benefits analysis, supported employment, and employment engineering. Mr. Hammis has worked in supported and self-employment since 1988 and is personally responsible for the implementation of thousands of Plans to Achieve Self-Support leading to employment, self-employment, and enhanced personal resources for people with disabilities. In July 1996, Mr. Hammis received the International Association for Persons in Supported Employment Professional of the Year Award for his “outstanding support and commitment to people with disabilities, especially in the areas of career development and the use of Social Security work incentives.”

Dr. Wehman is Professor of Physical Medicine with joint appointments in the Departments of Rehabilitation Counseling and also Special Education and Disability Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. He serves as Chairman of the Division of Rehabilitation Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Wehman has his Ph.D. in Behavioral Disabilities from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

As one of the original founders of supported employment, he has worked closely with business and industry since 1980 and has published over 200 articles and authored or edited more than 40 books primarily in transition, severe disabilities, autism, traumatic brain injury and employment for persons with disabilities. He has been the Principal Investigator on 41 million dollars in grants during his career.

As the father of two young adults with disabilities, he brings a strong parental as well as business perspective to his work. He is highly active in speaking to professionals, parents, advocates and businesses on transition and employment for people with autism, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and other developmental disabilities. On a daily basis he works with individuals with disabilities, communicates regularly with professionals in the world of business related to disability and diversity, and is active in teaching and mentoring medical students, residents, and doctoral students in rehabilitation medicine, special education, rehabilitation and psychology. A major focus of Dr. Wehman's work is on expanding the partnerships with businesses of all sizes so that more persons with disabilities can gain entrance into the workplace and retain employment successfully.

He is a recipient of the Kennedy Foundation Award in Mental Retardation in 1990 and President's Committee on Employment for Persons with Disabilities in 1992. Dr. Wehman was recognized as one of the 50 most influential special educators of the millennium by the Remedial and Special Education journal in December, 2000. He is also Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation.

John Kregel, Ed.D., is Professor of Special Education at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond. He presently serves as Director of Research and Associate Director of the VCU Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Workplace Supports. Current research efforts are focused on evaluating the effectiveness of state and federal efforts to reform social security policy, promoting improvements in supported employment programs, and enhancing the ability of employers to provide accommodations to workers with disabilities. He is also co-editor of Focus on Autism and Developmental Disabilities.