BOSTON, MA – Officials from The University of Massachusetts and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services today, Wednesday, October 28, 2009, officially launched Work Without Limits (www.workwithoutlimits.org), a Massachusetts Disability Employment Initiative. This public/private partnership is designed to overcome barriers to employment experienced by people with disabilities through improved access to health care and service coordination, enhanced engagement with employers, and by addressing issues such as inadequate transportation and economic disincentives to work. This initiative also directly supports the Governor’s plan to make Massachusetts a national model for the employment of people with disabilities.
The governor is scheduled to speak at the Massachusetts Disability Employment Summit, «Putting Our Abilities to Work»; an event that will launch the Work Without Limits initiative and support the necessary partnerships among the Commonwealth to connect employers and people with disabilities. Work Without Limits is a multi-faceted partnership that was formed with funding from the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services through the Massachusetts Medicaid Infrastructure and Comprehensive Employment Opportunities grant awarded to UMass Medical School in 2008.
«We envision this partnership as critical to creating an environment that maximizes work opportunities for youth and adults with disabilities, addresses the needs of employers and strengthens the Massachusetts workforce,» said Dr. Jay Himmelstein, Director of the Work Without Limits initiative and Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, whose Commonwealth Medicine and UMass Boston’s Institute for Community Inclusion are founding partners with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services. «There are needs across the entire spectrum of the Massachusetts workforce right now. What we know is that there is never a wrong time to do all we can to help people find meaningful employment.»
Through its coalition, Work Without Limits aims to improve employment outcomes for youth and adults in Massachusetts who experience some form of disability, approximately 11 percent of the state’s population. Work Without Limits will work with state agencies and the Patrick administration to establish a multi-prong approach to supporting people with disabilities and their participation in the workforce.
Employment statistics for people with disabilities are staggering: fewer than four out of every ten working-age adults with disabilities in Massachusetts are employed. The difficulty of participating in the workforce has a corresponding effect on household income, according to state statistics. Median household income for people with disabilities was $40,000, compared to a median household income of $83,000 for those without disabilities. In 2007, 27 percent of Massachusetts’ working-age adults with disabilities lived in poverty, compared to just 6 percent of non-disabled working-age adults. Yet, people living with disabilities find success in the workplace, serving to support themselves and their families as well as provide a critical source of labor power for Massachusetts companies.
Though the economic downturn has driven the statewide unemployment rate higher, researchers say that a resurgent economy will begin to create new jobs for both those with and without disabilities in the knowledge-based industries that have come to define the Massachusetts economy. Growth in areas such as health care and social services, professional, scientific and technical services; and accommodations and food services are expected to generate employment opportunities, including for people with di
