New Freedom Initiative -- Preliminary Report: Public Awareness, Outreach and Partnerships

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Initiative ~ Executive Order ~ HHS Role ~ News & Additional Resources

Delivering on the Promise: Preliminary Report

Federal Agency Actions to Eliminate Barriers and Promote Community Integration

Public Awareness, Outreach and Partnerships

Many individuals with disabilities and their families have yet to fully appreciate the implications of the Olmstead decision. Many families are not aware of the full range of community services that are available for individuals with disabilities as alternatives to institutionalization. Furthermore, service providers, employers, and others often have similar gaps in their knowledge. Outreach to provide these stakeholders with information, and to incorporate the views of stakeholders into federal policy and other actions when appropriate is one means of addressing this knowledge gap and of better informing federal activities.

In addition, pervasive misconceptions, prejudices, and attitudes exist which must be addressed that prevent many individuals with disabilities from becoming employed or self-employed, and otherwise fully participating in American society. Information and familiarity are key to defeating these negative images, myths, and stereotypes.

Facilitating the full inclusion of people with disabilities in American society will also require more than government programs. Innovative partnership initiatives must be developed and implemented at the national level if the inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace and the community is to become a routine part of how employers, businesses, and people with and without disabilities go about their normal activities. Effectuating such broad sweeping change will require that government work cooperatively and collaboratively, through appropriate legal arrangements, with private industry and problem solvers representing all sectors of the community.

The following activities are planned in the areas of public awareness, outreach and partnerships.

Department of Labor

Assuming that the President's FY 2002 Budget is passed in its proposed form, the following activities will be funded out of existing budgetary resources:

DOL's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) will launch a comprehensive and coordinated public awareness/education campaign to decrease stigma, eliminate attitudinal barriers, and increase employment opportunities for adults and youth with significant disabilities that will target business and industry, lenders, small businesses, families, and others, with a particular emphasis on hiring people with significant disabilities. The campaign will also focus on making people with disabilities aware of mainstream employment-related services, letting them know that these services are available to them, and providing highly visible role models. Successful entrepreneurs who have disabilities will also be profiled through a variety of mainstream media outlets to increase awareness about the self-employment potential of people with disabilities.
DOL's Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) will target businesses owned by persons with disabilities by conducting at least two procurement vendor outreach sessions. OSBP will also conduct training targeted for veterans with disabilities (both service-connected and nonservice-connected) in the new small business procurement initiatives.
DOL's Women's Bureau (WB), in collaboration with ODEP, will provide outreach to women with disabilities who are interested in self-employment.
ODEP, in collaboration with ETA and/or the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management's Civil Rights Center (CRC), will conduct joint listening sessions with customers of the workforce investment system, including individuals with disabilities, employers, parents and family members, providers of employment supports and services, and other relevant stakeholders, about changes needed to ensure meaningful and effective service delivery to people with significant disabilities.
The DOL Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA) will expand its education campaigns and programs to provide more education and outreach directed toward Americans with disabilities who are entering the workplace. PWBA will develop new material, building on its current materials which address the importance of health benefits coverage and the important choices to be made about health benefits when entering the workforce, to address specific information/questions to assist Americans with disabilities. PWBA will also expand its materials addressing the importance of saving for a secure future and help on how to do it as well as information on retirement benefit plan rights to address any specific information/questions to assist Americans with disabilities. PWBA will work with its partners, as well as continuing to add new partners, to expand its outreach and provide more focused assistance to the disabled community through wider dissemination and more direct delivery of this important information.

Department of Education

ED's Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) will develop and disseminate public service announcements to increase awareness of community-based living options.
RSA and ED's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), as appropriate, will coordinate technical assistance activities designed to provide information about the importance of the Olmstead decision and how Parent Training and Information (PTI) projects may serve parents and their children with disabilities when information and assistance is needed on home and community living options.
RSA will re-evaluate current methods for providing in-service training for independent living service providers and, as appropriate, implement identified improvements.
RSA will increase outreach and recruitment efforts to attract individuals of diverse backgrounds (e.g., race, gender, age, culture, disabilities) to serve as peer counselors for consumers of independent living services.
RSA will develop a Technical Assistance Circular to promote the involvement in community integration activities by the Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights programs (PAIR) and to suggest ways through which PAIRs can help to increase community options for individuals with disabilities.
RSA funds two regional Rehabilitation Continuing Education Programs to develop and implement training for vocational rehabilitation and independent living professionals as well as community organizations on the New Freedom Initiative and the Olmstead decision in order to improve outreach to consumers.
ED's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), in conjunction with DOL and HHS, funds the Olmstead Project in which cross-disability leaders and advocates are trained to work with states to develop and implement the comprehensive state plans providing for consumer-directed home and community based services for persons with significant disabilities.

Department of Justice

DOJ will hold a meeting with disability rights advocates and the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights to open improved lines of communication regarding Olmstead-related issues.
DOJ will consider additional outreach targeted at determining what specific barriers keep children in institutions, and away from family settings. Specifically, DOJ would like to meet with advocacy groups and others to assess whether the problem of children residing within institutions lies chiefly in a lack of accessibility in child care settings, or other similar barriers that are covered by the ADA. DOJ will also work with childcare organizations and educators to promote the delivery of services to people with disabilities. DOJ intends to collaborate with ED on this issue.
DOJ will develop three technical assistance documents: (1) a "Know Your Rights" piece for individuals with disabilities currently living in institutions; (2) a similar document targeted for people at risk of institutionalization; and (3) a document designed to assist states in implementing their responsibilities under Olmstead.

Department of Housing and Urban Development

HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Employment Opportunities (FHEO) will take steps to increase the amount of information on its web sites related to laws like Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the ADA, and the Fair Housing Act. In addition, FHEO will develop an easy to understand chart of the various disability rights laws and their requirements; and will develop a Section 504 consumer-oriented booklet.

Department of Health and Human Services

HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through the Department of Education and others, will continue its educational and self-help curriculum, pioneered with the nation's Independent Living Centers, entitled "Living Well with a Disability."
HHS will provide technical assistance to states to maximize the use of existing Medicaid authority to promote opportunities for community living and community participation, including productive employment. The program may include developing a "Promising Practices" website for community services.
HHS will establish a Disability Advisory Committee that includes substantial representation by all of the constituencies described in Executive Order 13217, including individuals with disabilities, family members of individuals with disabilities, advocacy organizations, providers and state and local government representatives. The Disability Advisory Committee will also include representation from the National Council on Disability. The Disability Advisory Committee will review and advise HHS on the implementation of other solutions set out in HHS' report, and will provide information and advice to HHS on community integration issues.

Last revised: April 9, 2002