Exemplary Collaborations Between
State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Agencies
and Independent Living Centers (ILCs)

Increased employment is a key issue for people with disabilities. To address this problem, several publicly-funded vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies and consumer-controlled, community-based, independent living centers (ILCs) have collaborated to provide employment-oriented services.

Partnerships between ILCs and VR agencies draw on the respective strengths of both types of organizations in helping people with disabilities achieve independent living and vocational skills so that they may join and remain in the work force.

The VR-IL Employment Outcomes Partnership Project used an independent Expert Panel, consisting of consumers and professionals from the VR and IL communities, to determine systematically what programs and informal practices qualify as exemplary models of collaboration. The Expert Panel also identified key program attributes that enable such collaborations to succeed.

The results of the project are presented on this web site. The VR-IL Directory provides the VR and IL communities as well as other consumer and professional groups with a resource guide to programs and practices that exemplify the best approaches to employment-focused collaboration. The Expert Panel, as well as the relevant literature, are also included on this site.

The VR-IL Employment Outcomes Project was conducted by InfoUse, in Berkeley, California, and the World Institute on Disability, in Oakland, California as part of the Research and Training Center on Independent Living and Public Policy funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research under Grant #H133B50005.

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This site has been designed for access. Last modified: 06/20/2000.