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Overview of Employment Services in Vermont. “There is a hell on earth, and in America there is a special inferno” Christmas in Purgatory, 1965. Brandon Training School.
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“There is a hell on earth, and in America there is a special inferno” Christmas in Purgatory, 1965
Brandon Training School • 1912: Vermont State Legislature authorized the construction of a school for the care and training of feebleminded children aged 5-21 years. When the State School for the Feebleminded in Brandon, Vermont opened in 1915, it soon assumed the eugenic function of segregation from society of "feebleminded women of childbearing age."
Sheltered Workshops & Enclaves • Middlebury • Bennington • St. Albans • Barre • Colchester
Supported Employment • In 1979, Susan Hasazi and Timm Vogelsberg (UVM) begin pilot project and staff training. • 1980 “Project Transition” was state funded (Barre, VT) • VABIR was formed. • Supported Employment begins • Federal funding obtained • 1981 Transition II (Burlington) then Transition III (WRJ) and Transition IV (Rutland) • SE Federal Systems Change Projects nationwide.
Programs Expanded • Psychiatric Disabilities • School-Based programs • JOBS Programs for youth with EBD • Federal Transition Systems Change Project • Welfare to Work • Traumatic Brain Injury • VR Transition Specialists • Disability Mentoring Day • Vermont APSE • Green Mountain Self Advocates
Community Inclusion • 1991 American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA) • 1993 Brandon Training School was closed • Sheltered Workshops in Vermont were closing • 2002 the last sheltered workshop in Vermont closed • Vermont first to close all workshops • 2007 Hosted Vermont Conversion Institute
Vermont Recognized • 2000 Kathy Hamilton & Michelle Burnham of UCS Bennington receive National APSE “Best Practice” Award in Las Vegas • 2006 Kelley Homiller & Jodi Whalen of Champlain Vocational Services receive National APSE “Best Practice” Award in Boston
Supported Employment Contact • Bryan Dague, University of Vermont-Center on Disability & Community Inclusion • Bryan.Dague@uvm.edu • 802-656-1345