Three National Award Winners In Our Area
Out of 500 mental health organizations nationwide, 24 were selected by Matrix Research Institute on behalf of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, for exemplifying best practices in employment programs for people with psychiatric disabilities. Three of the 24 agencies are in New York City: Fast Track to Employment (a program of the Mental Health Association of NYC), Institute for Community Living, Inc., and the Howie the Harp Advocacy Center Peer Specialist Training Program.
All three New York organizations are to be Project Employ partners. This means that they will work with the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities to promote employment opportunities for people with cognitive disabilities, including psychiatric disabilities. By February the Project Employ Core Elements should be in place.
Asked how being a Project Employ partner impacts their organization, LaVerne Miller from the Peer Specialist Training Program said that it will mean additional funding and also opportunities for the model of the Howie The Harp Center to be adopted by others.
Barbara Cohen of Fast Track to Employment agreed that being a Project Employ partner would mean additional funding and opportunities for their specific model to be replicated by other employment programs across the United States. Also, she said that Fast Track and the other Project Employ partners will be connected to an employer network that would help their clients get jobs. Furthermore, Barbara Cohen thinks that the award means that the Project Employ members are on the right track, and it means organizations like Fast Track are offering the best possible employment services around. Barbara Cohen says the award is a testament to the hard work and dedication of the staff of Fast Track and the other agencies of Project Employ. Lastly, Barbara thinks the Project Employ partners will be able to learn from each other and share their various winning philosophies with other agencies across the United States. The end product is that this award will benefit the consumers.
Three Winners:
The Institute for Community Living was initially begun in 1986 as a housing program which quickly initiated a supported employment program and developed "affirmative businesses" to provide employment opportunities for its residents. Job training programs include janitorial, computer graphic, office management, and food services. Currently175 individuals receive competitive employment services. ICL located in Brooklyn serves people with especially difficult employment barriers -- including people who were homeless, people who have been low income and subject to the new TANF expectations for employment and people with co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse.
Fast Track to Employment, an innovative employment service funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health and the New York City Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services, is specifically designed for people with psychiatric disabilities. Using a highly individualized, rapid place/train model, Fast Track provides a comprehensive continuum of services and resources to help over 130 consumers annually successfully transition to work, maintain employment, and develop and implement career plans. Key program attributes include maximum consumer involvement in every phase of the program, highly flexible, individualized services, and integrated, mainstream internships and competitive job placements developed expressly for individual program participants.
Program services are delivered at four sites around New York City, including two state psychiatric hospitals, Manhattan Psychiatric Center and Bronx Psychiatric Center with which Fast Track has developed collaborative partnerships. These hospital partnerships focus on the employment service needs of individuals who have experienced lengthy institutionalizations and are preparing to reintegrate into the community.
The Howie the Harp Advocacy Center Peer Specialist Training Program, a consumer initiated and consumer run program currently serves 110 people. This program provides training and permanent employment for people interested in providing human services to people with a psychiatric disability who might also have homeless and substance abuse issues. Trainees receive over 100 hours of classroom instruction including Living Skills Specialist, Job Coach Developer, and intensive Job Readiness including computer literacy currently required by most of today's jobs. They also participate in a three to six month agency internship and then transition to permanent employment. More than 70% of the center's graduates have an average annual salary of $22,500.
Fast Track can be reached at (212) 254-0333; Institute for Community Living can be reached at (212) 385-3030; Peer Specialist Training Center can be reached at (212) 780-1487.