Minnesota Employment Policy Initiative
The purpose of the Minnesota Employment Policy Initiative (MEPI) is to facilitate dialogue and develop leadership on disability and employment policy that will result in increased competitive employment for Minnesotans with disabilities.
MEPI supports the value proposition: “We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper.” Central to this initiative is the belief that employment is fundamental to adulthood, quality of life, economic freedoms and choices.
Leadership for MEPI comes from National Association for Persons in Supportive Employment: the Network on Employment, in conjunction with the Minnesota chapter.
The initiative works with numerous stakeholders to align policies, services and practices to ensure that integrated competitive employment is widely recognized and routinely promoted as the preferred option of all Minnesotans with disabilities.
Partnership is key to the initiative’s success. MEPI is enlisting strategic partners from disability advocacy groups, counties, state disability councils, human resources organizations, employment services providers and other service providers, Centers for Independent Living, the University of Minnesota, businesses and business organizations and state agencies. MEPI also works in close collaboration with the Minnesota Employment Training and Technical Assistance Center (MNTAT) to maximize the impact of employment policy and practice across Minnesota.
Together, MEPI and its partners undertake wide-ranging activities to bring together stakeholders to shape and advance public policy. They are convening 15 statewide “listening sessions,” two employment conferences and four business “mini-summits.” They will produce a series of briefs that outline policy recommendations and a performance “scorecard” to measure the progress made towards new policy and practice implementation.
Among the activities planned by MEPI for the two year funding period are:
- Maintain and update website of policy information and project results
- Develop a policy component for an annual employment conference with MNTAT
- Develop policy briefs and issue papers based on 15 topical policy listening sessions (including five sessions in conjunction with MNTAT Development Sites) designed to gather input and build consensus from stakeholder groups on policy changes needed to shape improved employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities
- Support four mini-summits hosted by business leaders to champion increased integrated employment opportunities
- Develop and update a scorecard highlighting progress in advancing employment policies and practices in Minnesota
- Make recommendations toward the development of a uniform definition of employment and uniform data management practices across state agencies
- Collaborate with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and other state agencies to provide information on developing employment policies and practices that increase opportunities and pathways into the workforce by all Minnesotans who want to work
- Strengthen and build new alliances to enlarge the circle of employment champions
- Integrate systems change policy initiatives across federal, state and local agencies
For More Information
For more information, visit the Minnesota Employment Policy Development Initiative website (www.mn-epi.org).
Contact Carol Rydell at 651-789-2815 or email crydell@kaposia.com