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Data

DD Services Data Collection Efforts Update

Preliminary Results from the Office of Adults with Cognitive and Physical Disabilities (OACPD) Snapshot Data on Employment¹

(This information was posted on January 22, 2008.)

Background:

In 2007, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Adults with Cognitive and Physical Disabilities (OACPD) collected statewide data on supported employment services funded by OACPD’s Comprehensive Waiver and State Grants.

The goal of this effort is to assess the current state of employment for people with cognitive and physical disabilities who are receiving supported employment services with state funding.  Working with OACPD throughout the process, CHOICES CEO project staff provided critical technical assistance with the development of the data collection tool, the data collection procedure, and the analysis plan.

Select Highlights:
These snapshot data refer to employment activities that occurred during the week of 8/13/07.  Fifty-two agencies were identified by the state information system as providing supported employment services during 2007.

Following the request for data, six agencies reported that they did not provide services during the week of 8/13/07.  Forty-three agencies complied with the request for data and three agencies did not comply with the request.  Select highlights from this data collection effort are listed below.

Employment and Employers

• These data identify 675 people who are working (this number does not include people working in sheltered workshops), with 57 working two or more jobs.
• Employment occurs in a myriad of settings with 212 different employers.²
• The top three employers include: Hannaford Bros., which employs 50 people, Wal-Mart, which employs 16 people, and Tom’s of Maine, which employs 14 people.

Earnings and Hours Worked

• During the week of 8/13/07, hourly wages ranged from $0.19 to $25.00 per hour, with an average wage of $6.62 per hour.
• During the same week, the number of hours worked ranged from 0 to 40 hours, with an average of 10.51 hours worked in that week.

Supported Employment Services

• During the month of August 2007, the number of hours authorized for supported employment services funded by OACPD ranged from 0 to 135 hours per person, with an average of 30.72 hours.
• During the same period, people used fewer than the authorized hours of supported employment services.  On average, people used 25.97 hours of supported employment services.
  
  Employmentforme.org (www.employmentforme.org) will highlight additional data points and provide quarterly updates in the coming months.
  

¹This preliminary information may change following additional data analysis.  It is intended to give a sense of the progress in collecting information on supported employment services funded by OACPD’s Comprehensive Waiver and State Grants. ²This is a count of employers regardless of location.  (For example, people work at four different Wal-Mart locations, but that is counted as one employer.)

CHOICES CEO activities are staffed out of the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. This web site is part of the CHOICES CEO project, funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services through a grant to Maine's Department of Health and Human Services (grant #1QAMAC030316). Views expressed do not represent official policy of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, or the University of Southern Maine.