Employment First Resource

Self-Guided Discovery Facilitator’s Guide: Helping People Discover Their Own Path to Employment

The Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and the LEAD Center are pleased to release this Facilitator’s Guide to Self-Guided Discovery. For many years, ODEP has worked to strengthen the capacity of the nation’s workforce development system to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities, using Customized Employment (CE) approaches as a universal strategy. With the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and ongoing systems change efforts like Employment First, formal adoption and implementation of Customized Employment policies and practices are increasingly occurring in state and local age` ncies to improve employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities and other significant barriers to employment. Customized Employment’s signature strategy, Discovery, offers an approach for job seekers with barriers to employment that is consistent with some of the most widely accepted strategies for successful career development.