The College of Employment Services (CES), Elsevier’s second online training curriculum in its new DirectCourse overbrand developed by the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at University of Massachusetts Boston, will be unveiled during the Alliance for Full Participation (AFP) Summit 2.0. AFP will be hosted at the Gaylord National Harbor Hotel outside of Washington, D.C. November 17 – 19, 2011. The new curriculum on employment services is a perfect fit for this conference with its theme: “Summit 2.0 Real Jobs–It’s Everyone’s Business.” This conference is a highly interactive event convening the leaders of the intellectual and developmental disabilities community to address the challenges and barriers facing increasing integrated employment for people with IDD.

“The CES curriculum is written for a cross disability audience and its usefulness extends to those who provide services and supports to other individuals with employment challenges such as ex-offenders, TANF recipients, and staff of One-Stop Centers; and our unique partnership with the University of Minnesota and Elsevier immediately gives us a brand, a history, and a reputation for quality,” said Karen Flippo of the University of Massachusetts Boston ICI, who is leading the university’s curriculum development efforts.

The CES curriculum, a companion curriculum to the Elsevier/College of Direct Support (CDS), gives employment services professionals the skills and confidence they need to build more rewarding careers in working with job seekers to find fulfilling jobs. The CES curriculum will focus on a group of core topics and the initial lineup of courses will be announced AFP.

Both the new College of Employment Services and College of Direct Support curricula are powered by the Elsevier Performance Manager: Core Development platform that is used and trusted by more than 1,500 organizations worldwide and used by more than 1.5 million employees. The Elsevier Performance Manager offers powerful tracking and assessment tools that will facilitate collaboration and communication throughout your organization.

DirectCourse will have a major presence at AFP and you are invited to stop by and visit our booth! You will be able to visit with and talk with representatives from Elsevier and ICI about the new College of Employment Services curriculum. Representatives from the University of Minnesota’s Research and Training Center on Community Living, the creators of the College of Direct Support curriculum, will also be at AFP to share updates about the leading online curriculum for educating a workforce of professionals who support individuals with disabilities.

For more than 40 years, the ICI at UMass Boston has worked to ensure that people with disabilities have the same opportunity to dream big, and make their dreams a fully included, integrated, and welcomed reality. As a leader not only in Massachusetts, but also nationally and internationally, ICI strives to create a world where all people with disabilities are welcome and fully included in valued roles wherever they go, whether a school, workplace, service experience, home, or any other part of the community.

ICI was established in 1967 at Children’s Hospital Boston by Dr. Allen Crocker and was originally known as the Developmental Evaluation Center. The Center was one of the first in the country, established as a direct result of President Kennedy’s recognition of the national need for increased support and training for citizens with intellectual disabilities. Through the years ICI has expanded its scope, and today ICI’s services focus on the entire lifespan of people with all types of disabilities.

“For over 40 years, our focus has been to figure out ways people with disabilities can participate in everyday activities and all aspects of the community,” explains Bill Kiernan, director of ICI. “There is still the perception out there that people with disabilities cannot work, cannot move on to higher education, and in general are limited in their activities. The ICI is committed to disproving these perceptions.”

ICI, now based at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Children’s Hospital Boston, helps change that reality with a wide range of initiatives including: training, research, evaluation, technical assistance, community outreach, and clinical and employment services.