SESP Prof. Michelle Yin was awarded a five-year, $2.98 million grant from the Maine Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to lead a project aiming to ease the transition from high school to adulthood for children with disabilities, the University announced Dec. 14.
Yin, the director of the School of Education and Social Policy’s Masters in Social and Economic Policy program, is the principal investigator of Maine’s Pathways to Partnership initiative. The state-run project seeks to connect transition services across youth-serving government agencies, schools and federally funded centers for independent living.
Yin said in the press release collaboration and coordination inconsistency among government agencies is a general problem exacerbated in rural states like Maine by limited resources.
Research by federal agencies consistently shows that access to personalized and coordinated services improves transition outcomes for children with disabilities, according to the release.
“Introducing concepts of career planning, community exploration, and independent living to children with disabilities … allows them to start envisioning and planning for their futures,” Yin said in the release.
The grant is funded through the U.S. Department of Education’s federal Pathways to Partnerships program, which sponsors projects that create systemic methods to improve economic self-sufficiency for youth with disabilities after high school.
In Maine, the employment rate for people with disabilities is 37% — less than half of that of people without disabilities. Workers with disabilities also make $15,000 less in median earnings than workers without disabilities.
“Raising expectations and instilling the belief that working real jobs with fair pay is attainable should begin early through messaging from schools and providers,” Yin said in the release.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @joyycee_li
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