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Industry: Email Alert RSS FeedMicroenterprising and People with Disabilities: Strategies for Success and Failure - Statistical Data Included
Journal of Rehabilitation, April-June, 2001 by Richard T. Walls, Denetta L. Dowler, Kimberly Cordingly, Louis E. Orslene, John D. Greer
There is recognition that microenterprise and self-employment may be under-used in the public vocational rehabilitation service program. The title of the 19th Mary Switzer Memorial Seminar was "The Entrepreneur with Disability: Self-employment as a Vocational Goal" (Hansen & Perlman, 1995). This seminar, hosted by the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, considered creation of a coherent national strategy for supporting self-employment for Americans with disabilities. One assertion was that non-profit vocational rehabilitation service providers are in the best position to play a leading role in the development of self-employment programs. Implications for action included (a) helping rehabilitation counselors foster positive attitudes and dispel myths about self-employment, (b) determining best ways for rehabilitation service providers to collaborate with programs devoted to establishing small business, microenterprise, and self-employment, and (c) conducting research on short and long-term outcomes of vocational rehabilitation for self-employment and microenterprise.
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Prescriptions for Success and Failure
Training, technical consultation, and counseling appear to be crucial components of a prescription for success for potential microenterprisers. Examples of effective services in these areas include a program for veterans with "serious disabilities," which includes (a) training in social skills for dealing with the public, (b) training and technical consultation on coping with business startup details, and (c) counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder or other issues. The services of this U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) program in Hawaii have resulted in start-up of such businesses as a small print shop, a franchised sandwich shop, an eco-tour service, a kayak business, a theater cafe, dry-land farming, and poi-food manufacture and sale (Hurley, 1999). As a second example, the Vermont Division of Vocational Rehabilitation invests $300 of case-service funds for each consumer in the microenterprise group. Group members then may apply to the group for a loan. In addition to obtaining loans, members build credit histories, exchange business ideas and contacts, develop improved business skills, and have access to technical assistance (Stoddard, Hanson, & Temkin, 1999).
Other agencies also have found ways to facilitate entrepreneurial success through training, technical assistance, and ongoing counseling. Participants can gain assistance and guidance in writing business plans and gaining other business skills at the International Leadership Forum for Women with Disabilities (World Institute on Disability, 1999). The Exceptional Entrepreneurs of Louisiana program provides business-development workshops, technical assistance for disability-related accommodations, and an intensive follow-up program. Businesspeople Overcoming Limitations from Disabilities provides training in business skills, business-plan development, finding and creating loan funds, and mentorship (BOLD, 1999). A state of Washington program has provided displaced workers a continuum of self-employment development and support services from inception, through start-up, and well into the business operation (Sonfield & Barbato, 1999).
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