What does the Career Horizons Project do for employers?
The Career Horizons Project (CHP) provides employment services to help improve Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE) outcomes for Mississippi residents between the ages of 16 and 70 who have a disability accompanied by or resulting from Long COVID Syndrome, a chronic condition causing fatigue, cognitive issues, and breathing problems for weeks or months after COVID-19, substantially limiting major life activities. Once eligibility has been verified, an individual can be enrolled as a CHP participant to receive CIE placement or retention services based on the individual’s employment needs for up to eight months from date of enrollment. Once a CHP participant has completed their CIE Plan securing CIE or their eight-month service period has elapsed, CHP staff will conduct an exit interview and close the participant’s case. CHP staff will make final contact with CHP participants 12 months from their date of enrollment to conduct a follow up survey.
Through the services we provide to CHP participants, we will expand the capacity for MS employers to hire and retain qualified workers with Long COVID. In addition to CIE services for CHP participants, demand-side employer engagement is a key feature of our project. We will provide direct services and consultation to employers regarding their overall approach to workplace inclusion and disability management to provide foundational infrastructure for job retention and career advancement one participant at a time and in general.
Throughout this five-year project, CHP team members will apply evidence-based and evidence-supported practices that have already been validated in VR settings, novel and innovative approaches that have not yet been tested with people who have Long COVID, a vast network of state and national-level partners, advanced and assistive technology to support direct service delivery and on-the-job accommodations for CHP participants, family engagement and social support interventions, and demand-side job placement and retention approaches that build an stronger 21st Century workforce. For workers with Long COVID in MS, this initiative will result in improved rates of CIE and enhanced opportunities for self-reliance. For MS employers, it will result in improved capacity to utilize an important and largely untapped labor resource.
Acquired Disabilities & Employment Portal
In partnership with the Center for Disability Information (CDI) at West Virginia University (WVU), the CHP team has developed an Acquired Disabilities and Employment Portal. The overall goal of the portal is to provide resources that will help people with acquired disabilities be better able to return to work or to stay at work successfully. Visitors to the portal can indicate their roles as workers with disabilities, employers, healthcare professionals, rehabilitation practitioners, etc. and are able to select the types of subject matter in which they are interested. The portal provides visitors with examples of accommodations that have proven effective in addressing the limitations caused by COVID-19 and other disorders in addition to research results and other materials relevant to their needs. The portal features multiple filters that may be applied to target users’ most immediate needs. Links are provided to other accommodation and ADA implementation resources.
To access the Acquired Disabilities & Employment Portal, click the button below.
Acquired Disabilities & Employment Portal
Additional resources will be added to this page for employers as we develop them throughout the life of this five-year grant project.
Refer a Previous or Current Employee to the Career Horizons Project:
Do you have an employee who wants to work but has had to stop working or is struggling to maintain employment due to a disability accompanied by or resulting from Long COVID? Refer them to the Career Horizons Project for competitive integrative employment (CIE) placement or retention services by completing our online referral form.