The National Disability Institute (NDI) manages over 400 DPNs Disability Program Navigators (DPNs) through a national technical assistance and training contract for the U.S.Department of Labors Employment and Training Administration(DOL/ETA)). DPNs are located in 432 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S.Virgin Islands and Guam. Under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998, the DOL/ETA directed funds and resources to improve workforce services for individuals with disabilities, including those with psychiatric and other non-visible disabilities. Funding for the DPN Initiative was in response to barriers to One -Stop services including physical and program accessibility, and meaningful and effective participation of job seekers with disabilities in the workforce investment system.

The role of Disability Program Navigators (DPNs) is to:

1. Guide One-Stop Career Center staff in helping people with disabilities access and navigate the various programs that impact their ability to gain/retain jobs.

2. Facilitate integrated, seamless, and comprehensive services in One-Stop Career Centers to persons with disabilities.

3. Improve linkages to the employer community and develop demand-responsive strategies to meet their recruitment and retention needs.

4. Facilitate the transition of in- or out-of-school youth with disabilities to obtain employment and economic self-sufficiency.

5. Serve as a resource on programs that impact the ability of persons with disabilities to enter and remain in the workforce.

6. Bring together multiple partners to foster a collaborative effort by building Interagency Agency Committees to address systems level barriers and Integrated Resource Teams to address individual level barriers to employment job seekers with disabilities experience.

DPNs have become engaged nationwide in improving relationships between the asset development and disability communities. One-Stop Career Centers have become Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites to help low-income workers with disabilities access the Earned Income Tax Credit and have incorporated provide financial education classes as part of Center workshops and events.

 

• Facilitating monthly administrative technical assistance audio conferences to DPN state-level representatives.  In addition to addressing administrative and technical assistance information, these audio conferences focus on topics of special interest (recent calls have included asset building strategies, DOL/ETA electronic tools and resources, federal hiring initiatives, WOTC, disabled veterans, TANF, apprenticeship, transitioning and at-risk youth, national service programs, and mental health);
• Implementing a training curriculum and other learning opportunities for DPN grantees using an audio conference/web seminar platform;
• Developing and maintaining DPNavigator.net, the DPN Initiative technical assistance project website, which includes both extensive archived materials from the past seven years of DPN training and technical assistance activities and newly developed materials that add to the extensive body of knowledge on DPN best practices that improve system collaboration;
• Compiling and disseminating a weekly publication, “Resources of the Week,” on information and resources relevant to increasing the employment opportunities of individuals with disabilities to approximately 20,000 recipients;
• Identifying and disseminating promising practices, which address the needs of job seekers with multiple employment challenges throughout the workforce investment system;
• Training Navigators to implement Integrated Resource Teams to leverage resources, coordinate direct services, and reduce duplication of services to One-Stop Career Center customers with disabilities; and
• Providing expertise on disability and work with the national DPN Program Office and regional staff to promote knowledge transfer and utilization of effective services and support coordination among multiple systems.