Valley Educational Associates Case Study
Background
Valley Educational Associates
Valley Educational Associates, Inc. was established in 1982 as a non-profit agency to provide vocational training and employment services to adults with disabilities. The agency started with an eight-person workshop and now it serves over 90 individuals in three separate sheltered workshops and various community-based jobs throughout Western Massachusetts. VEA’s mission is to provide dignified, meaningful employment for developmentally disabled adults, while providing outstanding quality and service to their valued customers. Many adults with developmental disabilities are not able to work in competitive jobs, but have the desire and ability to have a job and contribute something to the community. …show more content…
Placing individuals in workshops was much easier than finding them jobs in an open labor market. However, in more recent years sheltered workshops have come under a lot of scrutiny. In the last two decades the movement towards integrated employment have flourished. In 1963, the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (DD Act) was passed. Beginning the shift in national policy, the DD Act focused on the need to provide support and opportunities that promote independence, productivity, integration and inclusion of people with disabilities in the community with an emphasis on employment (Whittaker, 2005).
Sheltered workshops have been stereotyped as being dead-ends for individuals rather than stepping-stones into competitive employment. The lack of social and work skill development has also been criticized. Research is now showing us that integrated employment not only increases social tolerance for individuals with disabilities but also increases their opportunity to engage with peers who are not disabled and encourages them to participate more fully in the community (Jiranek & Kirby, …show more content…
Although sheltered workshops engage in production and operate as businesses, workers with disabilities in sheltered workshop do not get the same level of protection standards available to workers in the open labor market. Furthermore, part of the problem of sheltered workshops is that they fail to operate as businesses and do not tend to employee needs. Sheltered workshops lack management skills, have insufficient revenues and employees are not fairly compensated. Individuals working in these workshops are not offered benefits and in some cases they earn below minimum wage and do not receive health
Valley Educational Associates
Valley Educational Associates, Inc. was established in 1982 as a non-profit agency to provide vocational training and employment services to adults with disabilities. The agency started with an eight-person workshop and now it serves over 90 individuals in three separate sheltered workshops and various community-based jobs throughout Western Massachusetts. VEA’s mission is to provide dignified, meaningful employment for developmentally disabled adults, while providing outstanding quality and service to their valued customers. Many adults with developmental disabilities are not able to work in competitive jobs, but have the desire and ability to have a job and contribute something to the community. …show more content…
Placing individuals in workshops was much easier than finding them jobs in an open labor market. However, in more recent years sheltered workshops have come under a lot of scrutiny. In the last two decades the movement towards integrated employment have flourished. In 1963, the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (DD Act) was passed. Beginning the shift in national policy, the DD Act focused on the need to provide support and opportunities that promote independence, productivity, integration and inclusion of people with disabilities in the community with an emphasis on employment (Whittaker, 2005).
Sheltered workshops have been stereotyped as being dead-ends for individuals rather than stepping-stones into competitive employment. The lack of social and work skill development has also been criticized. Research is now showing us that integrated employment not only increases social tolerance for individuals with disabilities but also increases their opportunity to engage with peers who are not disabled and encourages them to participate more fully in the community (Jiranek & Kirby, …show more content…
Although sheltered workshops engage in production and operate as businesses, workers with disabilities in sheltered workshop do not get the same level of protection standards available to workers in the open labor market. Furthermore, part of the problem of sheltered workshops is that they fail to operate as businesses and do not tend to employee needs. Sheltered workshops lack management skills, have insufficient revenues and employees are not fairly compensated. Individuals working in these workshops are not offered benefits and in some cases they earn below minimum wage and do not receive health