Disability Employment Policy Office May 19, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Labor (``DOL'' or ``Department''), Office of Disability Employment Policy (``ODEP''), announces the availability of up to $5,000,000 to fund both a national technical assistance and research cooperative agreement, and multiple cooperative agreements for sub-national research and technical assistance pilot projects to investigate, develop and validate systems models likely to increase self-employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The national technical assistance and research cooperative agreement award will be funded for up to $1.5 million for a 36 month period of performance. The sub-national research and technical assistance pilot cooperative agreement award(s) will be funded for a total of up to $3.5 million. Awards may range from $800,000-1,200,000, with an average of $1 million for a 36 month period of performance. ODEP'S unique mission is to provide national leadership by developing and influencing disability-related employment policy and practice affecting the employment of people with disabilities. Congress designated these monies to ODEP to further the development of self- employment policy for individuals with disabilities. A critical element of this endeavor will be the generation of data and information to validate systems capacity-building strategies and systems change models for successfully increasing self-employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities, to document the systems-related difficulties and challenges that may be encountered, and to develop and test mechanisms for addressing these challenges. This data, obtained as a result of research and technical assistance efforts, will be used by ODEP and other stakeholders in developing policy recommendations across multiple public and private systems for increased self-employment options as an alternative to more traditional types of employment.