Improving Vocational Rehabilitation Outcomes for Justice- and/or Foster- Involved Youth with Disabilities

Cornell University conducted research on how state governments can improve job services to help youth and young adults who are involved in the justice system and/or foster care system achieve employment. This research looks to include youth, family, and professional perspectives on how state vocational rehabilitation agencies can more successfully outreach to youth who have been involved in foster care or juvenile justice. Vocational rehabilitation agencies are government agencies and community service providers who help people with disabilities overcome barriers to working and earning an income. The goal of this research is to provide guidance to professionals in these agencies and others so they can better reach youth who are involved in foster care or juvenile justice. This data set was part of a mixed methods research study, where Phase 1 was qualitative focus group interviews with two participant groups: (1) service provider professionals working within youth-serving agencies that serve justice and/or foster involved youth with disabilities; and (2) individuals who have experienced one or both of those systems and their families. During Phase 2 of the study, core themes identified through qualitative data analysis in Phase 1 were converted into survey items for a follow up survey with the same participant populations (including some who took part in the focus groups and some new participants). The target sample size was n = 400, evenly split between the different participant groups. Tab 1 of the uploaded file is the service provider professional responses, Tab 2 is the individuals with lived experience responses. Of note here is that this data set was used to confirm themes from Phase 1 qualitative research, as such, there were no attempts at making generalizable inferences and the data is not appropriate for such purposes. Rather, the follow-up survey was intended to increase the transferability of qualitative findings and increase confidence in making practitioner-oriented recommendations in a final toolkit deliverable for the project. This research was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Community Living, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), Grant #90IFRE0048. This publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the NIDILRR or the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of tradenames, commercial products or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.